Five Acts and a Damn Good Kisser
by abovethenightsky
Summary: AU. In which Xigbar is a drama teacher, Kairi directs a play, and some poor, helpless souls get suckered into acting. A story of teenagers, unrequited love, and unfortunate casting. AkuRoku, other pairings to be revealed.
1. Act One, Part One

**Act 1, Scenes 1 & 2**

---

There never was an ordinary day in Theater 1A.

Not that Roxas had ever expected there to be. In fact, as an almost-probably-entirely straight teenage male possessing some small amount of dignity, he'd never expected to be enrolled in a class with the dreaded t-word in its name, much less one with a number as well. Classes with numbers usually expected you to follow up on them. Both the 1 and the A were blatant pleas for attention. "Don't you want to stick around for 1B?" they seemed to ask every time Roxas looked at his schedule. "Maybe you'd want to even stick around for 2. You'd be so happy in 2."

Roxas had no interest in sticking around for Theater 2. But, as his high school graduation was fast approaching (one year, eight months, 15 days, not that he was counting) and he was lacking that Fine Arts credit required for graduation, he'd had no choice but to sign up for two semesters of Theater 1.

He'd soon found out that he was not the only almost-probably-entirely straight teenage male lacking a Fine Arts credit when his two friends Hayner and Pence had ended up in exactly the same boat that he had, the S.S. Drama. His twin, Sora, was also enrolled in the class, but happily so. Sora also fell under the category of straight teenage male, but had been peer-pressured into taking Theater 1 by his girlfriend, a veritable theater aficionado, and so had a legitimate excuse. _His_ best friend, Riku, did not have an excuse, except perhaps that he had been dragged in to complete the Destiny Trio or whatever it was he, Sora, and Kairi had taken to calling themselves nowadays.

The rest of the class was mostly female, which suited Roxas and his probably-mostly straight buddies just fine. There was the odd extra male or three who enjoyed theater, some of whom were also of the straight persuasion, some of whom were not. Not that it mattered. Still, the fact that the class was had a three-to-one male female ratio seemed, initially, to be the only point in its favor, and the only way to heal Roxas' wounded dignity.

Then Roxas happened to accidentally discover that he liked Theater 1A.

In his defense, anyone would like theater the way it was taught by their particular teacher. Xigbar—who'd insisted that the students dispense with the "ridiculous pretense" of referring to him by his last name, whatever it was—was an ex-surfer dude from SoCal who wore an eye patch. Maybe he was actually missing an eye, or maybe he wanted to be a pirate and had to settle for Drama teacher instead. Either way, his first act in the classroom had been to push all the desks to the side of the room and have his pupils sit on beanbags and discuss their previous theater experiences. If they were woefully lacking, as Roxas' were, they were told to think outside the box.

"Well," Roxas said, straining his non-theater geek but generally academically-oriented brain. "I've lied to my parents before. And they believed me."

And Xigbar had given him a thumbs-up in response.

To say that Xigbar's approach to theater was experimental would have gone down in the yearbook as "Understatement of the Year." He referred to many standard dramatic practices as "total pretentious bullshit," much to the chagrin of Kairi, veteran of Total Pretentious Bullshit Community Theater. Yet, he somehow still managed to teach them stage right from stage left. Roxas didn't know how the man did it, but he did, and every single day in Theater 1A somehow turned into an adventure in itself. Which was why no one was surprised when Xigbar addressed all them with a calculated, almost terrifying gleam in his eye. They all, however, braced themselves for the best of times, or the worst.

"Ladies and gentlemen, dudes and dudettes," said Xigbar, at his loudest and most affable. "And Pence," he added, garnering twitters from his audience. "We have an exciting opportunity. You all know about our musical in the winter, but before auditions for that start, we have something a bit more off-beat to offer. A student-run production."

More twitters. Mostly from the girls. Roxas glanced at Hayner and Pence, and knew that they were both thinking "No way would I be caught dead in _that_." Roxas sighed inwardly. His friends' outlooks on theater had unfortunately remained unshakable, even though they both thought Xigbar was, to quote Hayner, "the best nutjob we've ever had for a teacher." And they had undeniably had many nutjob teachers.

"And to tell you about it," Xigbar continued. "Is the director. Kairi, take the stage!"

Taking the stage was something Kairi was particularly good at, in Roxas' opinion, Sora's giggly girlfriend could be surprisingly commanding when she wanted to be. And she was definitely turning on the poise now. With her back straight, her head held high, she asked, "How many of you have ever heard of _Romeo and Juliet_?"

"Not me," Hayner muttered, rolling his eyes. "I hope that's the one where we wait around and the title characters never show up. It'd be a pretty short show. Easy to do."

Kairi glared and smoothed out her skirt. "Anyway, I'm organizing a production of _Romeo and Juliet_ acted and crewed entirely by students, to keep us busy until the musical. I was hoping that some of you would be interested in auditioning or serving on a crew. Even if you don't like Shakespeare, you can always help out on lighting or sound or set construction."

There were excited more murmurs from the class, many of whom didn't sing and would not be cast in the musical. This was their chance to shine. Some of the boys were also thrilled by the prospect of operating power tools, even if it was just to build a stupid balcony and a two-dimensional mansion.

Before she could be drowned out, Kairi held up a hand. "But there's one catch," she said. "Casting's going to be gender-blind."

"Wait," Roxas said, a little too loudly. "What? Are you going to be cross-casting?"

"No, kids," Xigbar interjected from his own beanbag. Black leather. "It means that anything goes. Girls can play girls, guys can play guys, girls can play guys, guys can play girls. Whatever the director thinks will work."

Kairi nodded. "It takes away a lot of biases," she said. "Sometimes the perfect Juliet is male."

"But that—ugh!" Hayner exclaimed.

"Or sometimes she's not, and the perfect Romeo is female," she added.

Hayner wolf-whistled. "You know, that one I can get behind."

"Ditto that," said Pence.

"Now," Kairi continued, "I know it's a time commitment, but it'll be completely and totally worth it when we put on the show in December."

"I'll even give you extra credit for being involved," Xigbar said. "Shows you're getting into the true theatrical spirit."

Roxas blinked. Ordinarily, he would have raised his hand, but Xigbar encouraged them to say what was on their minds when it came to mind, so he simply said, "But, um, you don't believe in grades. You give us A's for being here."

Xigbar shrugged. "Yeah, I know. I'll get you credit in someone else's class. I can talk to Vexen or Zexion or someone else who owes me a favor." He then turned his attention on the rest of the class. "I'd better see all of you at the auditions," he said. "Or in crew meetings. Hell, some of my students in 'Drama for Delinquents' are trying out, and you know what they're like. Shouldn't take too much effort for you dudes."

At the mention of Drama for Delinquents, Roxas sat up a little straighter. Not that that would do any good. He still wouldn't be able to read Xigbar's mind and know _who_ was trying out from that class. He saw that Sora and Riku were giving him an odd look, so he leaned into his chair again. The beans crunched against each other under his back.

"Auditions are next Tuesday and Wednesday," Kairi was saying. "I have the forms and monologue packets in my backpack. If you're interested, see me after the bell and…"

Roxas wasn't paying her any attention anymore. After this class was lunch. During lunch, he'd get to tease a certain Delinquent about auditioning for _Romeo and Juliet_. If that particular Delinquent were, in fact, auditioning.

He'd better be, Roxas thought, wearing a grin which would be utterly unexplainable to any of his other friends. He'd better be.

---

Roxas told his friends he had to make up an English assignment, said they should meet up at the usual lunch spot without him. After two years, he'd become particularly good at excuses. Good enough that Xigbar might give him two thumbs up if he saw the performances which Roxas gave weekly and how easily his friends ate them up.

In general, Roxas didn't like lying, and when he'd started there had been a certain amount of guilt knotting his stomach, but after two years of slipping away on Wednesdays the guilt had gone from noticeable to negligible. It melted away entirely when Roxas ran to the front entrance of the school and saw the rusty Mitsubishi outside waiting for him, windows rolled down to reveal a grinning redhead in the driver's seat.

"Hey, Rox," said the owner of that grin, leaning out the window. "What took you so long? I was gonna leave without you."

"We can't all skip out of fourth period ten minutes early," Roxas retorted, opening the passenger's door and climbing into the fabric seat. The air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror—Roxas had insisted on it—couldn't completely mask the smell of cigarette smoke, old potato chips, and coffee that had somehow become more comforting than irritating.

"Yeah, yeah." Axel shook his head, chuckling. "Someday I'll get to you. Someday you're going to stop being such a good little kid." Roxas rolled his eyes in response. Axel only drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "I promise. So, where to?"

"Burgers, I think," Roxas said. "We haven't had burgers in awhile."

"Burgers it is." Axel flipped on the radio, turned it up to as far as it would go, and sped out of the parking lot. The rumbling bass shook the car, but Roxas knew that the bucket of rust would hold up. It always had. Axel insisted that it always would, no matter how much the guitars screeched and the drum set thundered. Roxas, however, was a skeptic.

Roxas had grown used to the radio, though. It reminded him, somehow, of that first car ride with Axel, as a freshman. He'd never planned to get into that car, but he had, and his school experience, if not his life, had certainly gained an interesting fifth dimension.

As the buildings blurred past and the noises of the roadway blended with the honks of the other drivers who wanted Axel to turn that goddamn radio _down_ (a message he never got), Roxas remembered how he'd met Axel as Axel navigated through cars and trucks and whatever had the misfortune of getting in his way.

It had been a hot, muggy September Wednesday, and his friends wanted frappuccinos. Fortunately for them, D. I. Z. Ansem High was located conveniently in the middle of Twilight Town, so even the freshman, none of whom owned or operated cars, could get to a variety of coffee shops, drug stores, and ethnic restaurants within a ten-minute walk. Unfortunately for Roxas, he had lost three consecutive games of Rock, Paper, Scizzors and had, to his chagrin, been designated Frappuccino-Getter-Boy, meaning he'd have to brave heat, humidity, and gnats to get Hayner his Mint Mocha, Pence his Double Chocolate Chip, and Olette her Mocha Lite, hold the whipped cream.

But he was a good friend, so he accepted his assignment with minimal groaning, and was so busy trudging through the wild side streets battling heat prostration that he didn't notice when the vehicle—more rust than car, really—pulled up next to him. He did notice the onslaught of sound battering his ears before the driver flipped off the radio and rolled down the window.

"Hey, kid," said the driver, leaning to peer up at him through the window. Roxas caught a glimpse of a thin face, wild red hair, green eyes, high cheekbones. "Get in the car."

Roxas wasn't really in the mood to be kidnapped by a pervert weirdo, even if this guy did look a bit young to be a pervert weirdo, so he said, "And, what, you'll give me a lollipop? Don't think so," whipped out his cell phone, and kept walking, staying close to the far end of the curb.

"Don't be stupid," said the driver, accelerating to match Roxas' pace. "I don't abduct underclassmen. I have some _standards_, kid. You looked like you were dying, so I thought I'd do you a favor."

"Yeah, sure." Not wanting to deal with the guy, Roxas said the first thing which came to mind, to keep the guy talking instead of, say, lunging out of the car at him. He opened his phone in case he found himself in dire need of the help of police, fire, or ambulance. Maybe all three. "Like I haven't heard _that_ one before. Don't think I'd like your kind of favors, thanks. Now, if you excuse me, I'd like to get to Starbucks and back without being molested. I think it's one of my constitutional rights."

The driver laughed. "You're too much. I'm a student, just like you. See, look." He stopped the car and dug into his pocket, pulling out a Student ID, which he held up in Roxas' direction almost as a peace offering. "Truce, okay? If you don't want a ride, I'm not giving you one. Just let me know so I can go get my lunch."

Roxas examined the ID from afar. It seemed authentic enough. After all, who would counterfeit Student IDs? What could you get with them? Free trolley fare and discounted movie tickets? Considering the guy's offer in earnest, Roxas stopped, but did not get any closer. "What's your name?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"Axel," said the driver. "Got it memorized?"

Weird guy. "Of course," said Roxas, approaching the car door and leaning on it, peeking through the window to study the ID. It said Axel was a junior. Now that Roxas looked closely enough, he seemed perfectly harmless in a rapist-y sort of way. "So now I can give it to the police before I mysteriously disappear. I have friends waiting on their coffee back at school, you know. They'll figure out what's happened."

"Pff. I already said I don't go around kidnapping little boys. Now are you getting in the car or what?"

Roxas paused and weighed the heat against his eventual rape and murder.

He got in the car.

Ever since that day, he and Axel had struck up a sort of illicit friendship. Roxas never told his friends about Axel, because he'd soon found that they wouldn't approve of him. It wasn't the smoking, really (although that wasn't great), or the tattoos on his face (real, not henna), or the semi-punk fashion (which he managed to pull off, somehow) it was the crowd that Axel hung around. They didn't match the clean-cut model that Roxas and his brother, Sora, and even their younger sister, Naminé, usually kept company with. Axel's crowd was rowdy and noisy and liked drinking on the weekends. And Roxas knew that if one of his friends found out about Axel, they'd all find out, which mean that Sora would find out, which meant his parents would find out and he'd be banned from ever speaking to Axel again.

Axel didn't tell his friends about Roxas, either, maybe because he was ashamed of hanging around with some square two years younger than him. That hadn't stopped Demyx from finding out, but Dem was a special case. Other than that, no one knew.

That hadn't stopped them from making a ritual of going somewhere to eat every Wednesday and meeting up occasionally after school. Axel wasn't what you'd call a breath of fresh air. More like a breath of tobacco-scented air. But even so, it was a change, and one that Roxas found somewhat addictive. Without even realizing it, they'd become best friends.

Roxas chalked it up to a number of factors. Axel was smart, but so unmotivated that he rarely got the chance to show anyone else. Roxas liked adventure, but never had any. By sharing like this, they each got to see how the other side lived: Axel the rebel without a cause, and Roxas, the honor roll student.

They'd kept seeing each other even when Axel had gotten suspended last year. Roxas knew in his heart that it was completely warranted—intentional explosions in the chem lab couldn't exactly be taken lightly—but he'd been more angry at Axel for wrecking his school career than for the crime itself. Mr. Vexen was a dickhead. Still, Axel was lucky he hadn't been expelled. He _should_ have been expelled. He'd told Roxas he had been thinking of dropping out anyway. But Roxas made him go back on his knees and _beg_ forgiveness—by threatening never to speak to him again. Axel had pretended not to care, but Roxas knew better—and they let him off with a one-semester suspension.

So Axel was making up for the credit he'd missed the past year, and would be home free, a graduate, at the end of the fall semester. Roxas would miss him, and he had no idea what Axel could _possibly_ do with his life, but for now he was going to focus on surviving the first semester of junior year and leave Axel to his own devices. Potentially a bad idea, to be sure. But Axel'd have to learn to develop his own conscience at some point.

"Hey, yo, Roxas, Blondie," said Axel, waving a hand in front of Roxas' face. "Penny for your thoughts? You've been staring out the window the entire ride."

"Huh?" Roxas blinked and realized that they'd pulled into a hamburger-wrapper littered parking lot. "Oh, right. I was just thinking that you need to grow a conscience. One that isn't me."

Axel waved him off. "Eh. Conscience. I tried that once. Was a good kid all through middle school. Wasn't much fun." He patted Roxas on the head, and Roxas swatted his hand away. He hated it when Axel treated him like a child. "You've got the conscience bit covered for me pretty well. Now, come on. Let's get something to eat."

They'd ended up at a fast food joint, but that was fine by Roxas. The previous week, they'd gone for Thai and he'd ended up with a stomachache, which lasted him all through Math and into History. Something conservative, albeit greasy, was preferable this week.

As they stood in line, waiting to order, Roxas unsuccessfully pressed Axel for more information about his good kid days. When that failed, he brought up the question which had so intrigued him before. "So then, Mr. Drama-for-Delinquents," he began. "I guess you've heard about _Romeo and Juliet_?"

"_First_ of all," said Axel, holding up a finger, "its Introduction to Theater." He gave Roxas a serious, meaningful look, and they both snorted. Even Xigbar didn't call it that. It just looked more politically correct on paper. Unnecessarily so. Most of the people in the class were delinquents and _proud_ of it.

"And secondly," Axel continued, "Yes, I have. What, you think I'm trying out or something? Prancing around the stage in leggings and a tunic isn't exactly my style."

"I think you should," Roxas said, barely suppressing his grin. "You seem to like Xigbar's class okay, and you told me that 'that acting shit' was actually sort of fun. Besides, girls love a man in tights."

"Hold on a second." Axel leaned on the counter and addressed the cashier. "Yes, one regular hamburger with ketchup, onions and tomatoes, one regular cheeseburger with everything, a large side of Cajun fries, a Coke, and a water. Got it memorized?"

The cashier glared but read it all back. Axel winked at her, and Roxas, who was responsible for footing the bill this week, fished out a twenty and handed it to the poor, tortured woman. "I can't believe that you remember how I like my burgers," he said to Axel.

"It helps that you eat the most boring burgers in the world," Axel replied, shrugging. "But anyway, _Romeo and Juliet_? I don't know, I don't think I'm going to do it. Too much time."

"Like you do so much with your afternoons," Roxas argued. "And regarding the tights thing, knowing Kairi she'll set it in Las Vegas or do something pretentious like that." He sighed as he filled his paper cup with ice, then water. "Is it the gender-blind thing you're worried about? Afraid you might end up a girl?"

Axel pressed a hand to his heart. "I'm wounded. Don't you think I'd make a stunning Juliet?"

"I think they'd be hard-pressed to find someone taller than you to play Romeo." The image of Axel in one of those Renaissance-era dresses invaded Roxas' brain and almost made him choke on the sip of water he'd taken. Axel was going to end up accidentally killing him one of these days. Roxas wiped his mouth on his wrist and said, "And you're too flat to be a girl."

Disturbingly enough, Axel planted a hand on his hip and pouted. "You're just jealous of my metabolism and my striking good looks," he said.

Indeed, Roxas was mystified by the fact that Axel could manage to eat his regular-cheeseburgers-with-everything and manage to stay as skinny as he was. But he was not going to be diverted. "Look, if you audition and get in, and I audition and get in, we'll get to see each other all of the time without this sneaking around. Don't you think that'd be, well, better?"

For a minute or so, Axel said nothing. Someone came up and set their order on the counter, and he still said nothing. Roxas grabbed the brown paper sack before anyone else could, and finally Axel said, "Oh, stop looking at me like that. Batting your eyelashes isn't going to do anything one way or the other."

"Well?" Roxas demanded, absentmindedly sucking all the flavor out of a Cajun fry.

Axel swallowed and scratched at the back of his neck. "I have no idea _what_ people are going to think of this." Then he grinned and sighed in ultimate defeat. "Not that it matters. So, wanna get together after school and practice the monologues?"

Roxas grinned and took a bite of his boring old hamburger. This was going to be fun.

---

**_A/N:_** Wow, I have, like, how many active stories in this category now? D: This is what test season does to me. I always write when I'm busy. But that's alright! Anyway, trying something a bit different for me in this fandom. Oh High School AUs.

Before I get these types of questions, NO, Axel will NOT be Romeo. Axel would be a TERRIBLE Romeo. Generally, you need a heart for all of that star-cross'd loving stuff. I'm curious to hear who you guys think might be cast, though.

So, leave a review saying if you want more and, if so, who YOU think will be cast. I already have a list, but it can always be modified. ;) Have fun!


	2. Act One, Part Two

**_A/N:_** THIS. CHAPTER. ATE. MY. SUNDAY. I swear I meant to study this afternoon. I studied in the morning. And then noon hit. And then I figured, "Huh, why not write something for _Kisser_?" And then this happened.

Anyway, the enthusiastic response to chapter one spurred me on, so many thanks to **Aindel S. Druida, Mitsuru Aki, loki lee, Capeircorn, Rapid Motion, **and for your reviews!

Hope you enjoy this chapter as well. It gets long and...kinda crazy, and very pairings-y, and I wanted to make the audition scenes more involved, but oh well. Have fun!

P.S.: I don't own Shakespeare.

---

**Act 1, Scenes 3 - 6: The Aftermath**

---

"Hey, Kairi," Roxas said, upon finding Sora's girlfriend by Sora's locker, talking, coincidentally enough, to Sora, just after the end of fifth period. "Do you have any of those audition forms on you?"

Kairi looked up. She and Sora had been doing that rather irritating thing where they spoke very quietly with their noses close together. They weren't one of those obnoxious (read: Hayner and Olette, pre-breakup) couples who always seemed to get pressed against the lockers with their lips locked, and Roxas supposed he should consider that a relief. But this talking within three inches of each other's faces was getting really old. It was like one of those anticipatory shots in romantic movies, where the love interests would draw closer and closer, until their mouths were almost barely _just_ touching, and then—well, in the SoKai case, nothing. And Roxas, for some reason, found this much more exasperating than actual making out.

Not that he'd ever want to see Sora making out with anyone. It—just—the thought of it made him squeamish. He pressed a hand to his forehead to make the disturbing images go away as Kairi started talking to him.

"I do!" she exclaimed as Sora allowed her maybe six more inches of personal space, just enough for her to slip her backpack off her shoulder. "Right here in my bag. So, you're trying out?"

Roxas shrugged. "Might as well. After all, soccer doesn't start up until the spring, and colleges like it when applicants try new and daring things, right?" Contemplating the imminent audition, he realized, in fact, that this might make a great essay. "Dr. Shakespeare, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Thespian in Me."

"I'm doing it, too," said Sora as Kairi rummaged around in her bag. "On the condition that Kairi doesn't make me wear a skirt."

Kairi resurfaced, clutching a packet and an audition form in her hands. "Don't worry. I'm your _girlfriend_ and I don't think you'll look good in a skirt. Here." She thrust the papers out at Roxas. "Tuesday and Wednesday. Got it?"

"Got it," said Roxas, biting off the temptation to add "memorized." He'd really been hanging out with Axel too much. "Thanks, Kai."

She smiled at him, that angelic smile that Roxas knew made Sora's adolescent heart flip over in his chest. "No problem. I'm glad we have so many non-drama program students trying out. I think we need some fresh blood, right?"

"Definitely," Sora said.

"Got one for me, too?" asked someone from behind Roxas. Roxas recognized the voice as Riku's, and was momentarily taken aback. Riku actually doing actual drama? Odd. Riku himself seemed to recognize this, and he added, "I mean, theater's not really my thing, but I guess I can give it a shot."

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Well, of _course_. I was going to _make_ you audition, Riku, whether you wanted to or not. Here."

Roxas thought he might have imagined the slightest bit of strain in Kairi's smile as she offered him the papers, or the slightest bit of tension in Riku's hand as he took it. But Roxas couldn't have possibly made that up. Not between Kairi and Riku, who had been best friends since the beginning of time. No, he couldn't have imagined it. Unless…did Kairi know, then, that—

"So, when are callbacks?" Sora interjected. "Thursday?"

Kairi nodded. "And I'll post the list on the door to Xigbar's room on Friday." She gave a sudden rather alarming half-squeal, and, before Roxas could suggest that someone perform the Heimlich maneuver, hugged Sora tightly. "Can you believe this? I'm actually going to be a director! It's all coming together!"

What happened next was very strange, because Sora and Kairi shared a _did_ share a victory kiss then, and Riku and Roxas shared something, too: not saliva, but an uncomfortable glance. This was strange because Roxas didn't like Riku—for one real reason which had nothing to do with that infuriating smirk he always wore—but he could feel them bond a bit right then, even though he knew his face must have read "Oh-God-that's-my-_brother_" while Riku's wore a more general and harder to interpret "Oh-God-I-don't-want-to-be-here." For a moment, each could feel the other's pain. Sora and Kairi, of course, noticed nothing.

"So," Roxas said, shielding his eyes with his hand. "Sixth period. We should go."

"Going," said Riku in an odd, strained tone. "Yeah. See you."

They gave each other a curt, awkward nod before heading down the hallway in different directions, leaving one pair of star-cross'd lovers to their fates.

---

After a dreadfully boring and impossibly long Spanish class, D. I. Z. Ansem High set Roxas free for the afternoon. He fairly flew to his locker, dumping all of his books and binders into his backpack, including a couple he didn't actually need. Later, his back would complain rather painfully, but right then he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Hey," said Hayner, who shared that unfortunate locker. He grabbed a battered copy of _Hamlet_ which was in the process of disappearing into the void of Roxas' bag. "That one's mine. What's the hurry?"

"Got a hot date," Roxas said, zipping up his backpack. "With your mom. Don't wait up."

He heard Hayner grumble something which sounded suspiciously like "asshat" but was already off halfway down the hallway. In truth, he didn't know why he was so eager to see Axel again. Perhaps it was the impending sense that they didn't have much time together, and that the end of the semester would creep up and Axel would be gone, vanished into the abyss of post-high-school-diploma-land, leaving only the faint smell of smoke and his hair gel. Or, failing that, perhaps it brought on was simply audition-induced adrenaline.

Roxas was trying out for a play. He really was. Hell, he didn't even know if he was any good at theater at all. He got the sense that lying to his parents didn't _actually_ count for much, no matter what Xigbar told him. But he desperately wanted to succeed. Theater had already skyrocketed from seven to one on his list of favorite classes, so surely actually acting in an actual play would be even better.

Besides, this wasn't just any play. It was _Romeo and Juliet_. No matter what Kairi did to it, barring casting Leonardo DiCaprio opposite Claire Danes, it was a classic, and practically guaranteed to be awesome. Shakespeare hadn't stuck around theaters and high school classrooms the last four hundred years for nothing. With a talented cast and eager crew, Kai would pull it off splendidly, and Roxas yearned to be a part of that splendor. Even a very small part would do.

He exited the school building and took a sharp turn to the left, to the patch of foot-worn earth just off the sidewalk, right next to a trash can, conveniently hidden by an awkward jutting wall. A couple of smokers and potheads gathered there regularly in the mornings, but in the afternoon it doubled as an obvious meeting spot, and it had been Axel's idea to establish it as theirs, probably because he frequented it much more than Roxas cared to know.

Roxas was always cautious, and peeked around the wall to make sure there was, indeed, only Axel present. This afternoon, there was not. Demyx was also there, and the two of them appeared to be engaged in conversation with a blonde girl whom Roxas had only seen in the hallway. Demyx appeared not too fond of her, as evidenced by his copious eye-rolling and looking aside. Axel, on the other hand, appeared to be listening, at least vaguely. Roxas mentally kicked himself for noting that the girl—very attractive, nice curves, although with a general air of I'll-skin-you-alive about her—stood closer to Axel than Demyx. Much closer. He wondered about it and tried to count the number of inches between her thigh and Axel's (it worked out to something like phi, of course) before remembering that it wasn't his business who Axel hung out with in his free time.

The conversation only lasted thirty seconds more after Roxas arrived, and the girl threw her head back and let out a terrifying laugh, winked at Axel, then left. After staring for a couple of seconds, Axel turned his attention to the bit of wall and said loudly, "It's alright, Rox. Larxene's gone."

"Look at him. He's so scared, poor thing," said Demyx, shaking a strand of hair out of his eyes. Roxas couldn't help thinking that if Demyx wore his hair like a normal person would he wouldn't have that problem. "Really, the first time you see her, you think you're going to be devoured alive. Then the second time you see her, the impression doesn't change. The third time, it only gets—"

"I get the idea," Roxas said curtly, stepping out from behind the wall and leaning against it. "Thanks, Demyx. I'll keep that in mind the next time I run into her. Hopefully never." Although if she were involved with Axel, he thought ruefully, he might be seeing more of her than he'd like.

Demyx nodded. "Smart kid you've got there, Axel. What are you two compadres doing today?"

"Practicing," Axel said, without bothering to specify what.

"For the _play_," Roxas added meaningfully, punctuating the line with a glare. If Axel were going to get in, he'd have to get used to saying "I'm in a play" out loud.

"Oh, man!" Demyx exclaimed. "_R and J,_ right? Axel didn't tell me he was auditioning. That is _great_." He grinned at Axel, who had turned some shade of faintly nauseous. "So I guess we'll get to see each other everyday, huh?"

Roxas goggled. His brain, set on Shakespeare mode, could only spat out the most appropriate quote it found for the moment, which was, "Et tu, Brute?"

Demyx shook his head. "No, I'm not auditioning. I was hoping they'd let me be sound crew co-chief, or something. I have a lot of experience with microphones and sound equipment, you know, from all those bands I've been in."

"But…" Roxas still couldn't wrap his mind around it. "Why you? Why drama? Why now?"

Instead of volunteering any information, Demyx shrugged, rolled his eyes, and shrugged again, which forced Axel, who now sounded faintly nauseous as well, to say, "He's crushing again. And _hard_."

"Oh, it is not a crush," Demyx protested in a rather unconvincing twitter. "You know that anything I feel for anyone is nothing less than pure, clear, true, eternal love, Axel. Sheesh."

Roxas rubbed his eyes. "Wait, but…on a drama kid? Or another…" He trailed off, his mouth forming a slightly confused, silent "O," before he regained his ability to speak. "_No_. Xigbar? Seriously?"

"Calico Jack himself, yes," said Axel.

Quite honestly, Roxas wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. "But what about your pure, clear, true, eternal love, for Mr. Zexion, Dem? Or is that so last year already?"

Demyx turned a deep shade of red, and he fiddled with one of the longer strands of his hair. "Zexy and I were never going to work out anyway. He was too emotionally unavailable."

"But at least he was young, and almost sort of _attractive_," Axel said, then, with a glance at Roxas, added, "Objectively speaking. I mean, Zexion had both of his eyes. Besides, what's Xigbar, twice if not three times your age?"

"I'm eighteen," said Demyx, tilting up his chin defiantly. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"You know you could get people fired for carrying on like this," Roxas pointed out. "Legal or not, I don't think he could date you even if he _were_ interested. He sort of teaches your first period class."

Axel sighed and shook his head. "See, this is what I get for being friends with a kooky queer."

"Takes one to know one," Demyx shot back, the blush not yet faded from his cheeks. "And, on that note, I just remembered that I probably had something important to do, so I'll leave you two alone to your rehearsing." He started off, then paused and turned around. "By the way, Roxas, there's a party at my house on Saturday. Just a few friends and, you know, some video games, trashy movies, that sort of thing. You interested?"

Demyx was always trying to bridge that gap and get Roxas integrated with the other side, something neither Roxas nor Axel was really interested in. Roxas wasn't that type. So he shook his head and tried to be as polite as possible. "Thanks, but I think I'm babysitting that night. Besides, I'll have a ton of homework to do."

"Yeah, alright," said Demyx, who tried not to look the least bit wounded, really. "It must be so boring to be you, Rox. Well, see you around."

He started off down the sidewalk, leaving Axel and Roxas to stare blankly in his wake. "I'm sure the pressing thing he has to do involves anonymous notes on Xigbar's desk," Axel deadpanned. "'Oh, Xiggy, I want to be the ninja to your pirate.'"

"Yes, well, just because he's not supportive of _your _romantic conquests," said Roxas. It came out a bit more irritated than intended. "So he's got an unfortunate taste in men. So what?"

Axel looked confused and, oddly enough, a bit alarmed. Deer in the headlights, that look was called. Roxas couldn't understand it. "Wait. Who is Demyx not approving of?"

"Well," Roxas said, his mouth dry, "he didn't seem to like Larxene very much."

Axel laughed, a clear, authentic sound which echoed off of the school's vaguely brick-looking walls. "Larxene's not my girlfriend, Rox. She's like a porcupine."

"A porcupine?"

"Yes." Axel waved noncommittally with the hand not holding his script. "Prickly, and not fun to sleep with."

Roxas pulled a face. "I'm not going to ask how you know that," he decided aloud, trying to imagine something—_anything_—other than what his brain was offering up right then.

That uncomfortable look must have amused Axel even further, because he ruffled Roxas' hair and said, "You're cute, kid. No, I have not been screwing porcupines. You don't have to try the really nasty-looking cake to know that you won't like it. Especially if the cake has spikes."

"Huh." Roxas eyed Axel's hair. "Remind me never to eat you."

In return, Axel offered him an almost predatory smile. "Oh, my dear, naïve little friend," he said. "We do not have a deal. At all."

"Pervert." Roxas stuck out his tongue. Amazingly, around Axel, he could do that and still feel like the mature one. In fact, he could have lobbed stinkbombs at their principal, one anal-retentive Mr. Xemnas, from the roof, and still have managed to feel like the mature one. "You'd have better luck with the porcupine."

Axel inclined his head, but he was still smiling. "Touché. Shall we depart?"

"Where to?" Roxas asked.

"The park, I was thinking. Too many five-year-olds on playgrounds and the mothers that love them for it to be a decent hangout anymore. Your friends won't touch it, and neither will mine. Besides, it's a beautiful day."

Roxas couldn't very well argue with that rationale, so he said, "Lead the way," and, by way of a hand on his back, was led straight to Axel's car again.

The Twilight Town Park, located a convenient five-minute drive from their school, was indeed sparsely populated by moms and toddlers. Axel and Roxas set up camp far away from both of them, choosing a spot under an oak tree on a slight hill which overlooked much of the grassy, well-maintained park. Axel, naturally, made the most of the space, leaning against the tree trunk and sprawling out his long arms and long legs in whatever direction they felt like going, and almost instantly lighting up, now that they were off school grounds. Roxas sat down between Axel's feet with his back to the older boy and flipped through the monologue packet.

"So I'm not sure which one to do," he was saying. "There are five of them, but two of them are female monologues, and there's no way in _hell_ that I'm reading for the Nurse or Juliet. It'd be like getting down on my knees and asking Kairi if she'd pretty-please let me borrow one of her skirts."

"Hmm." Axel sat up and peered over Roxas' shoulder. "I see. So who are you left with?"

"Two Romeo, one Mercutio." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "And Romeo's either a bucket of angst or corny-impassioned."

"From what I remember of the play—which, granted, isn't much, since I made a habit of skipping freshman-year English—he's like that all the time," Axel remarked. "And not just angst and passion. He's dripping in hormones and existential lust and impotent rage and all of those things."

Roxas shrugged. "He's a teenage boy. We do that."

Axel raised an eyebrow. Axel's eyebrows were eyebrows with character, really, and not just because he'd accidentally singed off the ends in some freak chemical accident. Roxas felt like if he knew every quirk of Axel's eyebrows, he would be able to read his friend completely. "_You_ do that?"

"Don't you?"

"Never mind," Axel sighed and promptly closed the discussion by changing the topic entirely. "Hey, between Romeo and Mercutio, who am I?"

Roxas grinned. "Undoubtedly Mercutio. No doubt in my mind. Want to try it on for size?"

Axel reached around Roxas to grab the papers, and for one near-awkward moment was frighteningly aware of Axel's breath tickling his ear. Then Axel leaned back, squinting, held the paper up against the sun, and said, "I don't know half of the things he's saying here, Rox. Why don't you go first?"

"I don't think I'd be a very good Mercutio," Roxas said, breathing out deeply. "I don't have any idea what the required comedic timing is, and I'm not saying the first half of the Queen Mab speech if I can't do it justice." He paused, not sure exactly where to go with this. "So maybe you should take it home, and look up some of the words, just so you know what they mean. And then you can say it."

"Roxas, now look what you've done," Axel groaned. "You've suckered me into extra homework. I'll never forgive you."

"Or we could meet tomorrow," Roxas suggested. "I could bring a dictionary and the Folger edition of _R and J_. It should have some notes in it that could turn Shakespeare's English into reasonable English."

Axel sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "This seems like more trouble than its worth."

"Yes, well, suck it up," Roxas said, not the least bit sympathetic. "It'll be fun once we get through with all the bookwork. I think."

Leaning forward again, Axel ripped out Mercutio's monologue and handed the rest of the packet back to Roxas, then set his chin on the boy's right shoulder. Axel really did have a very bony chin. Somehow, Roxas didn't mind. "I think you should be punished for getting me into this mess."

"How?"

"Well…" Axel thought, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. "Two ways. I can either tickle you to death and completely embarrass you in front of those two hot moms over there, or I can force you to read Juliet's monologue. Your choice."

Roxas contemplated his fate. Death-by-tickling seemed like a rather unfortunate way to go, but death by sappy Shakespearean monologue seemed worse, somehow. However, Axel seemed to be in a very strategic position if he wanted to initiate a tickle war, and Roxas knew there would be no hope for him. At least if he had to read Juliet Axel wouldn't be able to see his face. So he sighed and said, "Fine. You win. I'll read it."

"Actually," Axel said, "I think I lose." He settled his arms around Roxas' waist, and Roxas realized he shouldn't have been so worried over how close Axel had been standing to Larxene. Axel was just a sort of touchy-feely person. He had his arms draped all over Demyx's or Roxas' shoulders all of the time. "I'd really rather molest you."

Roxas elbowed him in the gut. "Quiet, you. I have to get in character." He gave the monologue a quick once-over, though it wasn't as if every English student didn't already have it half-planted in their memories. He rolled his eyes, then began to read, flatly, "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art—"

"Like you mean it," Axel interjected. "Or else. Do you want to find out what 'or else' means?"

"Dear god, yes," said Roxas. "Anything but this. What do you want from me, falsetto?"

"No, I want to…how does Xigbar say it?" Axel snapped his fingers. "Believe you. I want to believe you. And then you can practice whichever angsty Romeo monologue you think fits you the best."

"Sure, alright. Now shut up and let me read." He scanned the monologue again. It wasn't as bad as he was making it out to be, really. After all, aside from all that lovey-dovey shit, Juliet really did have a point. The incredibly implausible love at first sight really paled in comparison to the incredibly pointless Montague-Capulet feud. He began to read again, slower this time, with more feeling. After all, what was in a name? It was just a silly label. In comparison to loving someone _that_ much…Juliet was a sensible girl for her age, because she knew that those things didn't matter. When they'd read the play in class, yes, the characters had seemed silly, but at least the two young people had more brains than to buy into the ridiculous feud of their parents.

Roxas thought of that as he read out loud to no one in particular. Axel vanished. It was ridiculous, but as he spoke he could almost see that balcony. He barely even noticed that he had come to the end of the monologue, except that he kept staring at the page and no more words appeared. The entire time, Axel had been so quiet that he may has well not have been there, except for those warm hands around Roxas' waist. Roxas, nervous, forced a laugh and asked, "Was it that boring? Did I put you to sleep?"

"No," Axel said. "No, I—no. You didn't. I was just listening." He paused, then added, "Jesus, you are _such_ a girl."

Suddenly indignant, Roxas rolled up the packet of monologues and rapped Axel on the head with it. "It's your fault! You're the one who told me to read it."

"Yeah, guess that was all me." Axel leaned his cheek on Roxas' shoulder. "I'm tired now. But you keep going. Talk to me about Romeo."

Roxas unrolled the packet, smoothed it out, and turned to Romeo's monologues. "Alright. Well, right now, I'm leaning towards 'But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks…'"

---

Tuesday arrived more quickly than anyone realized it would. In fact, Roxas managed to breeze through a Chem quiz, a Math test, and a paper on the History of the Indigenous Peoples of South America (thanks, Mr. Zexion) without really noticing that they had even passed him by. He far preferred his afternoons to school, because he spent them monologuing with Axel or engaging in mock Struggle tournaments with Hayner, Pence, and Olette, who actually had a wicked arm with a bat, or watching movies with Sora and Naminé. He figured he should enjoy these lazy afternoons while he still had them; the workload was supposed to get far worse once he hit October, and then he'd have PSATs to think about.

He and Axel had agreed to audition on Tuesday, because "if we're going to make fools of themselves, we might as well get it over with fast," as Axel put it. Roxas personally didn't think Axel would make a fool of himself, because he'd been working hard on his monologue and had, in Roxas' opinion, nailed it. He'd even gotten it memorized, something he'd sworn he wouldn't be able to do when they started practicing.

Roxas was, truthfully, more worried about himself. He thought he was an okay Romeo, but knew that there would undoubtedly be a better Romeo. After all, who wouldn't want to be Romeo, The Dashing Male Lead. At least, that was the general perception of him. Anyone who'd read the play would know that Romeo was far from ideal, far from perfect, much too impulsive, and yet endearing in his hormonal way. It would be hard to communicate that in the space of one reading, but he'd have to try.

He was one of the first people to arrive in Xigbar's classroom. The beanbag chairs were arranged in a semi-circle with three rows, a patchwork rainbow. That left a fairly large performance space at the front of the room for the actors. Roxas swallowed and handed Kairi his audition form, then took a seat in the second row of beanbags, just behind Sora, who was sitting dutifully next to his girlfriend, and who offered Roxas a friendly but wavering smile. Sora was nervous, too. He wanted to make a good impression in front of Kairi.

On Kairi's left sat Selphie, a perky underclassmen who Kairi had chosen to be her assistant director. Most of the other chairs filled in the next few minutes. Riku dropped his bag at the front of the room and sunk into the chair besides Sora's, looking vaguely sulky and responding to Sora's cheery "Hi, what's up?" with a shrug and a nod. Aside from him, most of the new arrivals were people Roxas only knew by sight. Very few of them were experienced thespians. Kairi was really pushing the "let's get new people involved in drama!" angle, and doing a good job of it, too. Xigbar, who was sitting in the very back of the classroom on his black leather beanbag, would be proud.

"Real acting," he often said, "isn't something you can manufacture. It comes from _here_, man." And he would point to his chest. "No heart, no hope. You've gotta put your soul into it. If you can do that, it doesn't matter how experienced you are. You're an actor."

Roxas wasn't sure how much faith he put in that school of thought, and he wasn't sure just how much heart he could channel into Romeo, and it worried him. He was so busy fretting that he barely noticed when his little sister sat down beside him and said, "Hey, Roxas. How're you holding up?"

"Woah." When had she gotten here? "Give a guy some warning, Nam. You scared me."

Naminé, a sophomore, offered him a smile as an apology. She and Sora really did have the warmest smiles. That day, Naminé had done herself up prettily for the audition: her light hair was tied back from her face in a ponytail, large, silver stars hung from her ears, and a shimmer of eye shadow hovered above her big blue eyes. "This is going to be fun," she said. "You nervous?"

"Yeah," Roxas admitted, softly enough so that Kairi wouldn't hear. "A bit. I'm afraid Kairi's going to think I'm too short and scrawny to be Romeo."

Shaking her head, Naminé said, "She'd better. If she casts _you_ as Romeo, I'm never getting Juliet."

They shared a laugh over that, because they'd had the discussion about how unlikely it was that either of them would get a lead role about six times in the past three days. Reiterating it made it a bit less intimidating, Roxas thought. Of course, that was before Kairi stood up to speak, and his stomach performed a triple somersault. This was _it._

"Well…" she began, earning an instant lopsided grin and two thumbs up from Sora. "Great! Thank you all so much for coming out to audition for _Romeo and Juliet_. Since I have everyone's forms, I guess we can—"

"Hey," said a voice from the doorway. "Yo. Wait for me."

Heads turned. But that was only to be expected. Axel tended to have that effect.

Dressed in his leather jacket and black skinny jeans, with his red hair wild, as always, and his green eyes darting about from face to face, he looked as though he'd happened to wander into the wrong classroom while looking for the rest of the Harley-Davidson club. Everyone stared, but he ignored them, and, without any further comment, he handed his form to Selphie, who fairly squeaked, and then stepped around the beanbags to get to the back of the room.

"Dude," said Xigbar, holding out his hand for a high five. "Good to see you!"

"Yeah, yeah," said Axel, high-fiving Xigbar and then turning to find a seat. Roxas was proud in a very backwards way. Axel was acting already. Just yesterday he'd been saying that he kind of really wanted to get into this damn thing. Now it seemed like he couldn't care less.

Coincidentally, the only open beanbag was the one behind Roxas. Axel took it, leaning back and putting his feet up on the back of Roxas' beanbag chair. Roxas noted that the proximity made Naminé slightly jittery, and sighed inwardly. This is why I can't take him anywhere, Roxas thought.

"So," Axel said loudly. "If you're all done looking, I think we should get this show on the road."

Kairi, who seemed to have recovered from temporarily swallowing her tongue in shock, nodded. "Yes. Right." She cleared her throat. "So, we're going to call you up one by one and have you read your monologues. Selphie and I might ask you to read a bit again with a different interpretation. Don't worry about that. We just want to see how well you take direction." She paused. "Any questions?"

Axel raised his hand lazily. "Yeah. Will you marry me?"

This wrung giggles out of many of the other auditioners, including Naminé, who tried to cover her mouth with her hand. Sora, for his part, let out an indignant "Hey!" Riku just snorted. Roxas, for lack of anything else to do, smacked himself in the forehead and muttered, "_You're not funny_" loudly enough so that Axel might have even heard it.

"So who wants to go first?" asked Kairi loudly. "Any volunteers?"

The laughter subsided immediately. Silence spread over the classroom, and terror gripped each adolescent face. Each face, that was, except Axel's.

"Fine then," said Kairi, pointing. "You."

Axel shrugged and stood, accidentally-on-purpose bumping Roxas' shoulder with his knee as he walked to the front of the classroom. Roxas knew he should have been more annoyed at that, but instead had to keep himself from grinning. There was something to be said for this secret friendship. It made social situations far more amusing than they should be.

"She loves me already," Axel said to himself, to Roxas, to anyone within earshot, really. "I'm sure she does."

"She's _taken_," said Sora, putting a bit of backbone into it.

Axel pressed a hand to his heart. "A shattering revelation. My own dear Juliet fallen victim to the County Paris! My soul shall never recover."

"What. Will you. Be reading?" asked Kairi through gritted teeth, laying out Axel's audition form on her lap and readying her pen.

"Mercutio," Axel said mildly.

Somehow, everyone in the room felt as though they knew that already. Kairi mentally prepared herself for something utterly terrifying, sighed, and said, "Whenever you're ready, then."

Axel grinned. It was only slightly different from the way he usually grinned, and made everyone think that he was going to joke away this audition just to make fun of the poor, innocent drama geeks. Then he opened his mouth and began, and everyone changed their minds.

"O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.  
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes  
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone…"

It wasn't so much the way he spoke, Roxas had decided at one of their earlier practice sessions, but the way he moved which made this monologue work for him so well. He had a certain way of moving, Axel, a certain fluidity to him that worked out with the joking storytelling which took place in the monologue. It certainly sounded like he was making it all up extemporaneously, and not saying Shakespeare's words at all. But the way he _moved_, the little gestures he'd worked out with his hands…he really loved this, Roxas realized. Maybe not acting in general, maybe not even Shakespeare, but he had really learned to love this speech, with all of its fantastical imagery. And it showed.

The monologue had been cut down to half its length due to time constraints, and when Axel finished—far too soon, far, far too soon—he swept an exaggerated bow and went to take his seat again. Out of the corner of his eye, Roxas glimpsed Xigbar nodding in approval.

"Well," Kairi managed after a distinctly noticeable one-minute pause. "Alright."

"So you _will_ marry me, then?" Axel asked, his voice heavy with hope.

Kairi sighed, her patience wearing thin. "No. Naminé, you're up next."

Naminé's eyes widened, but she obliged, taking the stage. She hadn't memorized her monologue, and the paper shook in her hand as she read. Even so, she wasn't bad. Her Juliet was sweet, but lacked spine. Kairi asked her to read the first four lines again, slower, and she did so with marginally more confidence. When it was over, she smiled out of relief and sat down next to Roxas, who patted her on the shoulder reassuringly.

After Nam, Kairi called three freshmen in a row, all of whom approached their texts with halting inflection and fumbling lips. Then a junior girl who Roxas didn't know went, and she was better than any of them. Then Selphie, who was shuffling through the pile of audition forms, drew Riku.

Neither Roxas nor anyone else had any idea what to make of this. Like Axel, Riku was one of those people who didn't strike anyone as having an acting bone in his body. That impression seemed to be reinforced when, much in contrast to his usual cocky, confident self, Riku kept his hands in his pockets and his eyes cast down, as if he really, desperately did not want to be there.

"What are you reading for us?" Kairi asked.

"The second Romeo monologue, the one after his banishment," Riku said, and, on Kairi's mark, he shook his hair out of his eyes and began with, "'Tis torture, and not mercy."

He ran a hand through his hair, distraught, and continued. "Heaven is _here_,/where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog/And little mouse, every unworthy thing—" He was growing louder, now, a bit more impassioned. "—Live here in heaven and may look on her,/But Romeo—" He paused, dropped in volume, and gave the audience such an anguished look that even Roxas, who didn't like Riku one bit, not one bit, felt pity for him on those two last muted words, "may not."

He continued, drawing out such subtlety in the angst that Roxas somehow couldn't look away, and almost couldn't bear to, but had to, think more deeply into the fact that it _looked_ like Riku was aiming his monologue towards the back wall as was generally advisable but wasn't, was directing it much more at front row center, really, which was also fine, since the director was sitting there, but Roxas noticed, and he may have been the only one who did, the way Riku's blue-green eyes shone though his long silver hair in one particular direction on lines such as "But Romeo may _not_; he is banished."

It had really been fortuitous that Sora was sitting so close to Kairi, otherwise the strange phenomenon of where Riku's eyes were going might be a bit harder to write off.

Even knowing this, Roxas was absorbed. He hated Riku all the more for it, because he knew _why_ Riku could speak with such an open heart about being banished, about not being able to touch the one he wanted. And yet, he couldn't look away. He was keenly aware that all of the girls in the room would have been willing to swoon with every dip in the inflection in Riku's voice, but this wasn't meant for them to hear, never, ever meant for anyone to see, and Roxas thought that it should have stayed that way.

Sora leaned back to whisper to Roxas, "Did you know he was that _good_?" and that little bit of blind amazement in his tone made Roxas want to scream out the obvious.

And Riku's voice contained so much by the end of the monologue—righteous anger, sadness, hopelessness—by that last "banished" that when he finished Roxas heard some girl to his left sniffle.

"Jesus H. Christ," Axel whispered.

"Thank you," said Kairi, her tone calculated and flat. Roxas noticed that his audition form was trembling in her hands as she passed it to Selphie, who eagerly scribbled down comments. "That was…thank you. You can sit down. Roxas?"

Roxas' head snapped up. He was supposed to go after _that_? "Yeah?"

"Your turn."

Swallowing—_shit_—he stood and hesitantly walked to the front of the room. Damn Riku and his stupid unrequited infatuation. If he didn't get a part it would be all Riku's fault, just another bullet on that long list of "Reasons Why Sora Needs a New Best Friend."

Which was precisely when Roxas' best friend raised his hand and said, "Hey, Hot Director Chick?"

Kairi turned, glaring. Apparently, a splendidly done monologue of unattainable love which happened to be secretly addressed to her boyfriend had not put her in a good mood. "What is it, Axel?"

Axel stretched out, his lower legs encroaching upon Roxas' empty beanbag. "Well, see, Blond Haired Kid isn't going to want to admit this, but—"

And Roxas knew that, whatever followed, he was in for a world of trouble. "Look, if I don't want to admit it, I'm not going to," he snapped. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Saving your ass, Blondie" said Axel, turning his attention back to Kairi. "Look, I saw this kid practicing in a room alone, and he does, like, the best Juliet." He held up three fingers. "Scout's honor he does. I mean, he's probably going to want to read you a Romeo or something, but don't let him. He does Juliet much better. Just look at those big, blue eyes, that sweet, innocent face—in Shakespeare's time they would have snatched him up and put him in a corset before you could say _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_."

"Go to hell," said Roxas, who was not in the mood for this at all.

"_Roxas_," said Kairi, her tone a warning and a half. Apparently, she was still pissed about Riku. "Is this true?"

"Uh…" Well, it wasn't really, but he didn't want to have to admit that Axel had forced him into the monologue in the first place. What could he say, that whoever Axel had seen, it wasn't him? That wouldn't work. Instead, he swallowed his pride and nodded. "But I was really just kidding around, so—"

"Show us," Kairi said. "You can do your Romeo afterwards, but…I'm curious."

"Same," Selphie chimed.

Roxas sighed. He was going to kill Axel. In fact, his brain had already come up with fourty distinct and creative ways to make sure Axel never saw the light of day again. Defeated, he asked, "Can I have a packet, then? I don't have it _memorized_."

Recognizing the variation on the catchphrase, Axel winked at him. Remembering that he was the focus of about thirty-five pairs of eyes (not including Xigbar's single eye), Roxas did not flip Axel off. But he wanted to. He wanted to _so_ badly.

He accepted the packet Kairi offered him without a word, spent a moment catching his breath, closed his eyes, remembered how it had felt last week to _see_ that balcony, and began to read.

---

Roxas didn't speak to Axel after that. He ate with Hayner and Pence and Olette that Wednesday, still smarting from the humiliation. Because even though Xigbar had stopped him at the door before he'd left that day and told him that, dude, he'd really been reading from the heart, he couldn't come to terms with the fact that he'd just read for one of Shakespeare's most famous _female _protagonists, and…

People had liked it.

He had been called back, though, along with thirty-eight of the seventy original auditioners, so that was something. Axel was there, along with Riku, and Sora, and Naminé, and, to many people's surprise, Pence and Hayner, who had been bullied into auditioning by Olette, who thought it would be hysterical if they got in. Roxas had stuck to his _real_ friends like glue and not cast a glance in Axel's direction. Well, more than once or twice.

He couldn't really avoid looking when Axel was being read, and he was amazed, because Axel had apparently done his homework, and he spoke Shakespeare's words like a natural. Roxas thought he would have been a disaster at cold reads, but he hadn't been. Kairi had liked him enough to have him read five times—twice as Mercutio, once as Tybalt, once as the Prince, and once, shockingly enough, as the Nurse, just for kicks and giggles. The most significant reading, and the one that went off the best, was when Kairi had him read a playful Mercutio against Riku's angst-ridden Romeo.

By then, it was generally assumed that Riku was going to be Romeo, and whoever read with him was in consideration for something serious. Kairi had him read for Romeo the most of anyone. True, Roxas read for Romeo once as well, and once for Tybalt, and once for Paris, but he knew all that didn't count for much.

The hardest reading for him was for Juliet against Riku. Roxas knew he could have blown that one off, but he didn't. He didn't know _why_, he just didn't. It was part of the balcony scene, anyway, where Juliet being more assertive than Romeo, who wanted to "swear by the moon," and Roxas was sort of partial that scene. The problem moment had occurred when Riku was called up to read with him, and Roxas saw the flicker in his eyes, the flicker that said to Roxas, very clearly, "Wrong brother," just before Riku turned on actor mode and became all infatuated and loving.

_Wrong brother._ If Roxas hadn't been Juliet to Riku's Romeo, he would have strangled him.

But that was all in the past, and it was finally Friday morning, and Roxas, who felt as though he wanted nothing more to do with Shakespeare for the rest of his days, was quite innocently putting his books into his locker when he was knocked aside and dragged around a corner by a blur of black and red.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, as Axel pushed him up against the nearest convenient wall. "Fuck! That _hurt_!"

Axel, who surprisingly had very strong, wiry arms, offered him a half-hearted grin in response. "Morning, Sunshine. Did you miss me?"

Roxas glared. "Fuck you, Axel."

"Hey, if you're up for it, I won't complain." Roxas's face betrayed only disgust, so Axel switched gears. "Look, I just wanted to say thanks for the help. With the monologue. Couldn't've done it without you and all that."

"Haven't you been getting the message?" Roxas exclaimed, wondering if he was in one of the security camera's blind spots and, if so, whether he could manage to get Axel in a headlock. The answer was probably no. "I don't want to have anything to do with you!"

Axel let out a low whistle. "We might have a bit of a problem, then, seeing as there's an all-cast read-through on Monday, and…"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Great. What am I, Servant Three? Rosaline?" Axel grinned. "_What_?"

"Well, I was going to _tell_ you…" Axel leaned in, and Roxas turned his head away. "But since apparently we're not _speaking_…"

"Fine. Then let me go so I can see the cast list."

"The list which I happen to have a copy of in my back pocket?" Axel asked coyly. "I don't know, do you want to walk _all the way_ to Xigbar's room and—"

"How did you get that?" Roxas snapped, feeling his heart begin to pound in spite of himself. Goddammit, he said he wasn't going to get nervous about this thing! He was done with it! Done! But…he _was_ curious…

"Ah, well, see, my fiancée happened to have—"

"Never mind, just give it to me."

Axel took his good old sweet time drawing the list out of his pocket, so much so that Roxas had to give in and grab at it, at which point Axel held it high above his head so that Roxas had to jump. The man was _cruel_. This was why Roxas was never speaking to him again. After this.

"I _will_ kill you," he growled. "_Give it here_."

"Fine, fine, keep your pants on." Axel smirked infuriatingly and handed Roxas the list, which he promptly unfolded and scanned once. Twice.

"Congratulations," he said flatly. "And I'm happy Naminé got a part. And Sora. And Pence."

"And we're happy for you, too, dear," said Axel, who, to Roxas' abject and utter horror, seized him around the waist and kissed him rather mockingly on the cheek, ignoring the hands Roxas put up to defend himself. "_You_ are going to be the prettiest—"

"I have to go find Kairi," Roxas said, and he pushed Axel off and fled down the hallway.

---

**_A/N:_** My beta was all "KISS HIM!" but I don't think it turned out quite like she intended. :) Anyway, yes. Drained author wrote 8,000 words in a day and a half, so she is drained.

She also is aware that Zemyx is more popular than Xigdem, at least on this here site, but, really, someone had to like Xigbar in this story. He's too awesome not to be liked. And, also, the author...is a SoRiku fan. Especially unrequited. OH SORA.

Casting still remains a mystery to all those involved.


	3. Act Two, Part One

**_A/N:_** Holy cow, thank you guys for the terrific response to the last chapter! Special thanks to **animebecca, Stephanie Ridings, loki lee, SarahXxUnlovedxX, Knit. Pump, Lifes. Lover, skinnedkneedmisfit, leafyaki, Mitsuru Aki, Aindel S. Druida, The Infamous Villian, **and** ElenAtalantie **for their incredible reviews, and additional thanks thanks to everyone who faved and alerted.

**IN RE XIGDEM: **Seems like people who voiced their opinions on this topic were either stongly for or strongly against the pairing. I'm of that middle ground of not caring very much, but I do have XigDem influences in my life (you can thank my beta for that) which color my views. Even so, Demyx's crush on Xigbar (which may not be eventually somewhat requited, I haven't decided yet) is, at this point in planning, going to be mainly used more for jokes than serious pairing business. I mean, ye gads, we already have enough serious unrequited love in this story to fill the Suez Canal, and that's only Riku's fault! So no matter what camp you fall in, you'll probably find something to like in Demyx's antics, which, I am happy to say, will not focus entirely on his crush. He's too much all-around fun for that.

On that note, enjoy the latest chapter!

---

**Act 2, Scenes 1 - 3: Three Conversations**

---

Kairi was standing by her own locker, which was inconveniently located halfway across the building from Roxas'. He was panting by the time he reached her, which he thought put him at an automatic disadvantage in the very serious confrontation he was about to have. He waited a minute or two to catch his breath, then started in with a very dignified, very calm, and only twenty percent annoyed, "Why, hello, Kairi. And how are _you_ today?"

Looking up at him with a smile which should have been more wary, Kairi said slowly, "Fine, thanks. And you?"

"Oh, you know." Roxas leaned back against the lockers, which thudded metallically behind him. "The usual. My life's been ruined by the girlfriend of my brother, who cast me as _Juliet_ in the freaking school play, and now people are going to think I'm a girl or a cross-dresser for the rest of my life. So, I'm just great."

"Huh." Kairi zipped up her backpack. "I'm sorry to hear that. Well, I have to get to first period, so—"

"What a coincidence," Roxas interjected, giving her a level stare. "We have the same first period. How about we walk _together_?"

Kairi sighed, and Roxas could almost see her draw herself up to be more composed. "Look, Roxas, I'm sorry, but you knew what you were getting into. You checked off 'accept all roles' on your audition form. I figured you'd, well, keep your word."

Roxas shrugged. That was true, and the fact that he hadn't checked off the "male roles only" box now seemed like a gross oversight. "Yeah, I guess…I just didn't think that I was Juliet material, you know? No boy wants to think he is."

"Come on," Kairi said. "Walk with me." Not leaving him much of a choice, she took hold of his arm and began to walk down the hallway, and Roxas, keeping his hands in his pockets, followed next to her, listening as she tried to pull up an excuse from that devious director's mind of hers. "I can understand how it's a little awkward, but—"

"Awkward is an understatement. It's bigger than that. Weirder. It's like…" Roxas fumbled around for the right words. "Twilight Zone bizarre." He paused, and added, for the sake of his cover story, "That Axel _jerk_. I don't know what he has against me."

"What he has against _you_? He wants to marry _me_. I think that's worse." She shook her head. "But maybe he doesn't have anything against you. Maybe he was just trying to be helpful. You did that monologue so well, Roxas, and if you'd done Romeo after Riku you would have blended right in. Your Juliet reading was different, and not just because you were a guy. The characterization, the inflection, even the physicality was all so—"

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," Roxas said wearily, so wearily, in fact, that the reference slipped off of his tongue quite by accident. "I mean, thanks and all that, but I'm still going to have to flounce about and wear a dress and sigh over my lover."

Kairi laughed, and that annoyed him a bit. Not that Kairi's laugh wasn't sweet and pretty, like the rest of her, but she was laughing while _he _was in the midst of a crisis! The least she could do was act sympathetic to his plight, seeing as her efforts, combined with Axel's, would probably earn him the nickname of "Juliet Boy" for the rest of his high school career. "First of all, I think Romeo's got at least as many sighs as you do, if not more. Second of all, there's not going to be any flouncing involved. I want you to act natural. And thirdly, I still have to decide whether I want you in a dress or not, so don't _worry_."

"Please say no," Roxas begged. "Please, please, most beautiful woman and best director in the entire world and wonderful almost sister-in-law, say no."

"Oh, you," Kairi giggled, waving him off. "I'm not going to be your sister-in-law if Axel has anything to say about it." She sighed again. "He'll be an incredible Mercutio if I don't murder him first. We could have used people like him in so many plays…I wish he'd gotten into theater sooner."

Roxas nodded, thinking that theater seemed like a more productive outlet for Axel's talents than burning down chemistry labs in his spare time. "He seems great for the part, even if he is a jerk. What's his story? Where's he been all of your life?"

Kairi shrugged and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Don't know. Probably doing drugs in the parking lot with some delinquent friends of his." Roxas thought that that was woefully close to the truth. "But I bet he wished he found us sooner. Once you turn to drama, there's no going back."

"Or maybe, 'Once you turn to Kairi, there's no going back,'" Roxas said, offering her a grin of his own. He knew that Axel was joking around with the flirting-with-Kai thing, but it was fun to poke fun at her for it. Roxas was going to take whatever cheap shots he could get. "Sora's not going to be happy."

"Sora's going to be perfectly happy. I gave him a decent role, and I have no plans to cheat on him with Axel. Zero." She paused. "Do you think I did an okay job? Casting, I mean. From an unbiased point of view."

"Well, as we've already established, putting me as Juliet…" Roxas realized something. Right then. For the first time. It hit him in the face like an out-of-control freight train, steamrolling over his brain and leaving that as flat as a pancake. And this was not a casual, everyday revelation. It was a holy shit revelation. Like, holy SHIT. "I'm going to have to make out with _Riku_, aren't I?" He stared at her. "I mean, _repeatedly_, aren't I?"

Kairi froze, and said, very carefully this time, very cautiously, "Yes…"

"Holy _shit_," Roxas exclaimed. "Like, seriously, Kairi. I might have to demand a recast. Put Naminé in my role, and make _me_ Friar Lawrence. I don't think I can do kiss him, acting or not."

"But why?" asked Kairi softly, and, when Roxas only continued to stare, she ventured, "I mean…isn't he hot?"

Roxas smacked himself in the forehead, repeatedly, and with both hands, because that seemed to be the best way to get the point across. _Goddammit_. "I'm not _gay_, Kairi!"

"Really?"

She sounded so honestly surprised that Roxas lowered his hands and turned entire body around all the way to look her straight in the eyes. "Yes," he said, a bit on the defensive. "I'm straight. I'm perfectly, absolutely straight. Straight as a line. Why, what did you think I was?"

Kairi looked sheepish. It was very becoming. "I don't know. I mean, you haven't had a girlfriend since middle school, and…I just sort of always thought…"

Roxas groaned. His life was over. Over! Not only would they be calling him "Juliet Boy," they'd be spray painting "fag" on his locker and sticking gay porn in his textbooks. He knew it. He just did. "Just because I don't like any of the girls at our school doesn't mean I'm _gay_, Kairi. It just means I'm not interested."

"I know…" Kairi looked at the floor, her cheeks tinged pink.

"So what's the deal? Do I _look_ gay? Do I _act_ gay? Does the mythical female gaydar mysteriously go off when you're around me?"

"You were reading Juliet's monologue in a room all by yourself. I thought that _that_—"

"I was kidding around!" Roxas exclaimed. "I read _all_ the monologues! The Nurse's, too, and Mercutio's. Just for fun! _That _definitely doesn't mean anything. Kairi, you _know_ me, I can't believe you'd—" Something else struck him. Something terrible. He let out an audible gasp. "No. Kairi, you _wouldn't_—please tell me you wouldn't."

"I wouldn't what?" Kairi asked faintly.

"You weren't trying to set me up with Riku, were you?"

The silence was answer enough.

"Holy _shit_, Kairi," Roxas said. "I mean, holy _shit_."

Kairi's head snapped up. Her blue eyes blazed at him. "Look, alright, I made a mistake in thinking that you were gay, and I'm sorry about that. And I didn't think of setting you guys up at first, when I cast you in the part, and cast Riku in _his_ part, and I realized I had the two of you as love interests, and the thought did occur to me, I'll admit it, but it wasn't just _that_, Roxas. And even if it was, it wasn't entirely about _you_. Riku's my friend, and I wanted him to be happy. And he hasn't been happy for awhile."

"Yes, Kairi, yes, he's been pining after your boyfriend, who happens to be my _brother_. It's the reason he angsts so well. You know that, and I know that. But that doesn't mean you have to force him on _me_. I hate him, and he's not too fond of me either."

"You barely even know him!" Kairi exclaimed. "You only hate him because you think he wants Sora for—I don't know what. But Riku _loves_ him, and that's the problem, and, you know, it makes me feel _awful_ sometimes, seeing that look in his eyes. So I thought that if you knew that just how honestly Riku loves him that you might understand him, and if you understood him you might get along with him, and then who knows what would have happened? You're Sora's brother. You, I mean, it wouldn't have been much of a stretch.

"But it wasn't about that. I mean, it wasn't entirely about that at all. Roxas, you did that monologue and I _saw_ Juliet. A lot of the girls did her wrong. They thought that she's really, super immature and sighing all the time over boys. But she isn't, and you weren't. You were stronger than that. Not masculine—sorry—but strong. And I wanted my Juliet to be stronger than that, too. And you did so well, with that, and during the cold reading with Riku, and I just thought you were someone who could put their all into the part. And, I don't know. Was I wrong?"

"No," Roxas said, realizing that he meant it only after he said it. "But I can't believe you even _thought_ of that. Of me and Riku. Together. I mean, Jesus Christ, Kai. We'd both spontaneously combust."

She looked down, concealing a smile. "Please don't. That would be a hideous addition to the balcony scene."

"Shakespeare really is fond of people falling in love with the wrong twin, though. He'd approve of this," Roxas muttered bitterly. "Change my name to Sebastian and have Sora be Viola. We can put on _Twelfth Night_ instead. Riku would make a splendid Olivia. Very pretty."

Kairi couldn't hide her giggle at that. "This is why I'm the director and you aren't. So, are you doing it?"

Roxas sighed. "Alright. I'll do it."

"Thanks." She offered him a weary smile. "I knew you'd be a good sport. For the record, any boy'd be lucky to have you for a girlfriend."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "Tell it to someone who cares."

---

Roxas went up to the teacher's desk in the middle of first period History to get a pass to the bathroom. He did not, however, go to the bathroom like a good little boy. Instead, he passed it and took a left turn, found himself in the English hallway, and proceeded straight to Xigbar's classroom.

The instant he opened the door, he was struck in the nose by a wad of paper.

"What the _hell_?" he wondered aloud, surveying the mixture of flyers, pencils, and erasers which were whizzing across the room.

"Paper airplanes as performance art, dude!" Xigbar called from his beanbag.

"Um," said Roxas, ducking to avoid a blue plane on a collision course with his right eye. It hit the doorframe and fell to the floor with a crumpled tip. "Wow. So this is what you do in Drama for Delinquents all the time?"

"You just caught us on a good day," Xigbar said, a grin splitting his scarred face. Now that Roxas looked at him, he could see how Xigbar might be attractive to Demyx, albeit in a graying, long-haired, pirate-y sort of way. Pretty much the opposite of Mr. Zexion. Perhaps Dem just wanted a change? "By the way, congrats on your part, little dude. I always knew you had it in you."

"Thanks." Not that Roxas really meant it. He'd never wanted to get in touch with his feminine side in quite that way. Still, he was resigning himself to his fate, and a part was a part. "It'll be an experience," he said, keeping his tone casual and his words vague. "Look, I've been sent by the office to, uh, get Axel. Is he too busy?"

Xigbar's one eye lit up. Somehow, Roxas didn't think he would ask for a pass, especially not in this class, where students were probably called away more often than not. "Nah, you can take him. He can't fold an airplane worth shit anyway."

"Well, then, um," said Roxas, who was aware that some of the students had noticed the presence of a short, blond thing in the doorway. "Let's go."

A chorus of mocking "Oohs" spread throughout the classroom as Axel stood from his beanbag chair, a cocky smile plastered on his lips. Roxas spotted Larxene, that girl from the previous week, reclining in her chair next to him. She offered Axel an unsympathetic grin as Demyx playfully smacked his knee almost as if to say, "Go on, get out yourself gone." Amused, Roxas saw that Demyx had a perfectly folded yellow paper airplane in his lap. Xigbar must have been proud.

"Hey, hey, I'll be back," said Axel, stepping around his Delinquent peers, who were sprawled out in their chairs so that their feet impeded his progress towards the door. "Don't miss me too much. Come on, Blondie. Let's get out of here."

Roxas agreed wholeheartedly, as some of the Delinquents were eying him with either a "fresh meat" or "that's Juliet Boy!" glint in their eyes. If he got stuffed in a locker or a trash can or some such thing—even though he knew that never happened in real life, and only on Disney channel sitcoms—he was blaming Axel and Kairi.

When the door closed behind them, Axel went from playful to oddly morose in the space of about two seconds. He crossed his arms, leaned back against the wall, and looked up at Roxas with sullen green eyes. "Well? You're not taking me to the office, are you?"

"No."

"Good," said Axel. "Because I've been a good boy lately. It'd be unfortunate if I'd gotten in trouble for _that_. To what do I owe the honor, then? Have you come to give me another tongue lashing? Fire away. I'm listening."

Roxas stared. This was unexpected, to say the least. Why was Axel acting like _this_? He wracked his brain and came up with the only viable, albeit a bit self-absorbed, excuse. "Woah. Did I really hurt you?"

Axel glowered. "I don't know. What were you expecting, sunshine and giggles? I already tried that this morning, and they didn't seem to work, because you hadn't gotten over yourself yet. So, yes. Your best friend not talking to you for three days over some silly audition tends to sting a little." He looked to the side. "Unless I've been demoted from 'best friend,' too."

"No!" exclaimed Roxas, moderately shocked. "I mean, agh, in my defense you completely deserved the silent treatment thing for acting like a total asshole, but that doesn't mean I hate you forever. I mean…" His small smile was a peace offering. "I got a lead, and it's probably mostly because of you, so all's well that ends well."

"Seriously?"

Roxas scuffed his feet on the white linoleum floor and said, "Yeah."

After a moment, Axel broke into a radiant grin and rubbed his hands together. "Great! So is this the part where we kiss and make up?"

"Oh, don't be gross," Roxas scoffed, rolling his eyes. "I think kissing one guy is more than enough to last me a lifetime." Then he groaned. "God, _Riku_. I can't believe Kairi cast me against him. If I had any other Romeo, it would be so much easier to accept my fate."

"Oh, yeah. That must be really awkward," Axel said pleasantly. "Especially given that he wants to bone your brother."

Roxas gaped at him. "How do _you_ know about that?"

"I was at the auditions, and I have eyes. It's not that hard to put two and two together." He shrugged. "Besides, I'm a sucker for unrequited love-lust-things. Can spot 'em a mile away. Demyx practically doesn't have to tell me anything anymore because I'll already know what's going on in his head."

Running a hand through his hair distractedly, Roxas mused, "'Bone your brother.' It sounds so much worse when you say it like that."

"Well, that's what you think, isn't it?" Axel said. "I assume you'd pity the guy more if you thought he was actually in love with Sora. That sort of thing is hard to deal with, especially when the object of your affections is your best friend." He yawned. "So, what's your take? Does lover-boy just want his body?"

"Please never say that again," Roxas managed weakly. "Ever. Especially about Sora."

"Hey, look, he's got that hot little director girlfriend of his, who is soon to be my lovely wedded wife, by the way, but unfortunately is still in Sora's hands for now," Axel pointed out, a malicious light dancing in his eyes. "And really, she's cute, he's…not bad, what do you think they _do_ in their spare time?"

"Stare into each other's eyes and stuff. Seriously, cut it out. I'm going to throw up."

Axel sighed and shook his head. "You need a stronger stomach if you're going to be kissing Riku," he said, patting Roxas on the shoulder. "What a mess. Though I guess you look more like Sora than anyone in the school, so it'll be easy for him to pretend. You can…" He shrugged. "Pretend he's a girl. His hair is long enough."

"But he's not a girl," Roxas moaned. "He's a _guy_."

"And a hot one, too. You can't deny it." Roxas cast Axel a sidelong glance, and he held up his hands in self-defense. "Seriously, you can't! I mean, objectively speaking. What, you don't think so?"

"I think you must be working for Kairi," was the reply. "She'd try to get me to admit something like that. You've probably got some kind of recording device on you somewhere."

Axel put his hands in his pockets and laughed. "You know, if you're going to pat me down, I won't object, but you probably don't want to do it in the middle of the hallway. We might be interrupted."

Roxas sighed. "See, you say things like that and I don't know how to make sense of you."

"Making sense of _me_ has sent three shrinks and a priest to untimely deaths. Doubt you'd have any better luck."

"Shit! Speaking of untimely deaths—crap." Roxas glanced at his watch. "I've been in the bathroom for like fifteen minutes. I'm going to get killed."

Axel slung an arm around Roxas' shoulder. "No, you won't. What do you have now, World History? Zexy will give you an odd look and you'll feel all guilty about it, but you'll live."

"I really should get back, though." He tried to think of anything else he hadn't covered yet. "Hey, Axel?"

"Yeah, Rox?"

"Are we really best friends?" Axel gave him an odd look, and he added, "I mean, I don't disagree, it's just something we've never really talked about, so—"

"You know what?" Axel interrupted, squeezing Roxas' shoulder affectionately. "You worry about things too much. Go to class, okay? I'll talk to you later."

"So that's a yes?" Roxas asked, grinning.

Axel removed his arm. "Get out of here, you," he said, and to further the confusion (add injury to insult, Roxas' brain sighed), added an affectionate but rather unnecessary slap on the ass to get Roxas moving in the right direction. Low, but it had the desired effect, as the blond let out a strangled yelp and immediately beat a hasty retreat for the Social Studies hallway.

"I hate you!" Roxas called as he walked backwards down the hallway, away from the redhead's evil evil smirk. God, he could have killed him. "I hate you so much!"

Axel only waved at him and said, "Love you too. Take care of yourself!" before vanishing back into the classroom to engage in Airplane Wars: the Empire Strikes Back with Demyx.

Roxas could only bring himself to sigh.

---

The rest of Friday passed very quickly. Roxas' friends, naturally, all came up to congratulate them, some with more respect than others. Hayner was in a particularly devilish mood, but that was probably because he had been cast as Peter and had to follow Pence, the Nurse, around with a fan, and smarted about the fact that he appeared in a grand total of two scenes. Pence was thrilled to have a cross-dressing buddy, though Roxas was sure that Kairi would allow him to camp _his_ part up. They were the two only cross-cast guys. For her part, Olette, another aspiring Juliet, who'd auditioned on Wednesday, gave him a warm, congratulatory hug, and said she was proud to be his mother.

He was most terrified of the reaction of his theater class, but Xigbar was, as always, supportive, and Riku thankfully kept a distance, offering Roxas a handshake and a smile at the beginning of the period and then keeping his distance, chatting with Kairi instead. Sora was, as always, enthusiastic, and greeted him with a stream of "Ohmy_god_Ican'tbelieve_you_gotapartand_I_gotapartthisisgoingtobesomuchfun!" without seeming to care that Roxas had, in fact, gotten the lead _female_ role, while Sora was the perfectly respectable male Benvolio. But of course Sora wouldn't care about something as trivial as gender. Sigh. Roxas thought he caught a couple of the obnoxious seniors in his class sneering at him, but he wasn't sure. They always looked away when they _knew_ he was looking.

Naminé was thrilled to have a role, even a male one, although apprehensive about all of the long speeches she had to memorize. Roxas was happy the casting had worked out in her favor, as well. A few more girls had been cast as men, as if to make up for or excuse Pence and Roxas: Sampson and Gregory were girls, as was Roxas' "father," Capulet, played by that one tall junior girl who'd done well at the Tuesday auditions, and Paris, played by a girl Roxas didn't know. At least _that_ almost made sense. Sort of. Many of the smaller roles and servants were also filled by girls. In fact, there were so many girls in the cast that Roxas might have been able to get away with the claim that he was doing drama to meet women…if he hadn't been playing Juliet.

By lunch, everything was going quite smoothly. No one had stuffed him in a locker. In fact, just the opposite was occurring. People who had heard were congratulating him. Some of the drama girls, mostly underclassmen, even approached him to say that they thought he was so _brave_ to do this. He didn't feel especially brave. Hell, he didn't even know if that was really a compliment. But he thanked them anyway for it and let them go off to talk amongst themselves, and turned and ran straight into the person he least wanted to talk to right then.

_Riku_.

Roxas' spider senses were tingling, and he felt like he definitely did not want to be a part of whatever was going to happen next, so he tried to step around the senior with a, "Sorry, gotta—"

"We're talking," said Riku, seizing Roxas' wrist in an iron grip and dragging him towards the nearest classroom. "You and I. We are talking _right now_."

The teacher was not present. Roxas didn't even know whose room it was. All he knew was that he was pulled into it with deadly force, and that Riku closed the door behind him. He leaned up against a desk and rubbed his wrist. "Ow," he said, glaring up at Sora's best friend. He hadn't quite realized before just how _tall_ Riku was. "Couldn't wait? Had to start the honeymoon early?"

Riku ran a hand through his hair, which fell back into his eyes that particular _way_ that drove girls mad. Roxas, however, was not a girl, and knew that when Riku ran a hand through his hair it meant that he was agitated, so he braced himself when Riku opened his mouth and said, "This wasn't my idea."

"Well, that makes it all better, doesn't it?" Roxas replied, his tone laden with sarcasm. "Your idea or not, we're stuck together for the next two and a half months, making lovey-dovey eyes at each other."

He was rewarded with a weary look. "I'm not thrilled about this either. But like you said, we're stuck." Riku sighed. "So I wanted to see if we could at least have a conversation like civilized people. Otherwise I'm going to Kairi and telling her it's not going to work out, and that she should recast my part."

"Been there," Roxas said. "Done that. Hasn't worked." Riku looked at him with something which could only have been described as extreme annoyance. Roxas shrugged. "What can I say? She's very persuasive."

"Well," said Riku, blue-green eyes flashing. "That's _comforting. _Glad to know you think so highly of me."

Roxas thought this conversation would probably go better if he didn't tell Riku precisely what he thought of him, so he clamped his mouth shut.

"But look," the older boy continued after a moment. "Sora's…my best friend, and you're Sora's brother. We have to have something in common." He paused. "Hell, Roxas, I don't even know why you _hate _me so much."

The answer, of course, was because Riku had highly inappropriate thoughts about Sora, which, for some reason, seemed to Roxas to be an incredibly toxic component to their friendship. Roxas had never had any problems with Riku until the other boy had hit puberty, really, and Roxas had first noticed when he was about thirteen that Riku got a high from being around Sora, and acted tortured whenever Sora was around Kairi, and that was enough. If Sora hadn't liked Riku so much, Roxas would have insisted that they stop hanging out at all. He had this—perhaps irrational—fear that Riku would end up jumping his brother in a dark alley someday. Riku could be _scary _sometimes. This whole situation would have been different had Roxas doubted Riku's intentions toward Sora, but it was _clear_ to him that they were about ninety-five percent impure. Definitely not as pure as Kairi's.

"I was under the impression that you hated me first," Roxas said instead. "After all, you were the one who started giving me dirty looks whenever I walked to your house to pick Sora up. Care to explain?"

Riku sighed. "This is pointless. Can we get along or _not_?"

"And here I was, happy to play the blame game with you all through lunch." He paused, and thought. "Maybe we'll work better together if we set some ground rules. How does that sound?"

"Fine by me," Riku said. "What's the first one going to be, 'You must stay five feet away from me at all times?'Because _that_ will make the balcony scene really easy to block."

"First Kairi, then you. What is it with everyone's fixation that stupid, godawful scene?" Roxas groaned.

"Oh, well, _I_ don't know. Maybe because it's the scene where we have to be _all over _each other?"

"One of many," Roxas pointed out. "But okay, let's make that rule number one, then. Pretend-kissing is fine, but if your tongue gets anywhere _near_ my mouth even by _accident_—"

Neither of them heard the classroom door open, but they both heard Sora's alarmed shout of, "Woah, woah, _guys_! Warn me before you have these kinds of conversations!"

They both turned to look at him. Sora's face was as red as Axel's hair, and he looked thoroughly uncomfortable. Riku wasn't much better off, so Roxas coughed and said, "Hey, Sora. We're just trying to figure out if we can live through rehearsals without killing each other. Nothing serious."

"Yeah," Sora muttered, staring at his feet, at his large yellow sneakers. "I got _that_. It's just weird to think of my best friend making out with my twin brother." He looked up, grinned uncomfortably. "But it's not like its real making out. I mean, I've been to plays where Kairi's kissed other people. It doesn't count onstage."

"That's comforting," Riku said, glaring at Roxas, his voice low.

For some reason, Sora found that funny, and he laughed. "You know what you two are just like? Like the people in movies or books and things who hate each other but end up getting cast in a play opposite one another and falling in love." He paused. "Please don't do that, though. I mean, like I already said, it'd just be weird."

Riku coughed, and Roxas rushed in with, "I don't think there's any danger of _that_, Sor. There are a ton of beautiful girls at this school who would want my head on a pike if Riku hooked up with someone just like little old _me_."

He punctuated this with a meaningful glance, and Riku ignored him completely, focusing, as usual, on Sora. "What did you need, Sor?"

"You were going to help me with Physics," said Sora, shooting Roxas a sort of please-don't-tell-Mom-I-got-a-C-on-my-last-quiz glance. "Remember how I was talking about resurrecting Newton just so I could kill him again? I _hate _that class."

The change in Riku was incredible. He _laughed_ at that, then crossed the room to put his arm around Sora's shoulder. Roxas barely stopped himself from growling. "No problem. We'll start in just a sec." He looked up at Roxas. "Think we'll be able to live through this thing?"

"I might have to come up with a couple of more rules," Roxas said, his voice strained. He couldn't speak as freely when Sora was there. "But I think we can handle this like the mature, competent adults that we are."

"Ha, yeah," said Sora, rather unexpectedly. "You guys are both the most mature, competent people I know. And I think this acting thing is really cool, even if this whole you-guys-kissing thing is a little…y'know, weird."

Riku laughed _again_. Roxas almost had a heart attack. The things that boy put himself through to convince Sora he was a normal human being. "Don't worry," he said. "It's just for the show. Then I will never kiss Roxas again."

"Talk about words I never thought I'd hear from _you_," Roxas said, then he shrugged and smiled—albeit a forced smile—at Sora. "Yeah, Sora, we'll be fine."

Sora nodded. "Okay, good. Well, see you later, Rox."

"Bye, Sor. See you."

It was a testament to how nothing had been resolved that Roxas' only thought, as he watched Sora leave the room with Riku, was, "And make sure you have a chaperone. You don't know what that one is capable of."

---

**_A/N:_** Oh Roxas. I love you, dear, but you are so wrong. So wrong about Riku. Not that I'd blame you for trying to protect your brother, of course, but -sigh-.

That was not Kairi bashing, by the way - she really does want Riku to be happy. Of course, I'm sure she'd want to get him, you know, away from Sora for a bit, but really the girl wanted to try to find something to make everyone happy. And it only really occured to her after casting. Honest. Author swears.

And Axel. Oh, Axel.

Anyway, that's it for tonight. You guys may get another chapter this weekend - I wanted to fit their first rehearsal in this one, but I didn't! So you're probably get it next time. Hint: hilarity ensues.


	4. Act Two, Part Two

**_A/N:_** I have to go to a piano lesson really soon, so I'm going to forgo the thanks right now and put them in the next chapter, but know that if you reviewed, alerted, or faved I STILL LOVE YOU!

No updates this week until the weekend, alas. I have four tests in four days. It will be a nightmare.

My beta and I drew a scene from the end of chapter two! It is on her deviantart account, and the link is in my profile.

Talk to you later!

---

**Act Two, Scenes 4 & 5**

---

Roxas entered the school auditorium Monday afternoon with Hayner, Pence, Olette, and a good deal of entirely warranted apprehension. Many of the other members of the cast had come up to introduce themselves to him, but today was an all-cast, all-crew meeting, and he didn't know how some of the crew would react to him. Kairi, of course, had assured him that drama club was full of kind-hearted, quirky, open-minded people, but, as Roxas had never been in one himself, he didn't know whether this was actually true or whether she was just trying to be nice before tossing him into the lions' den.

"Hey," Hayner said, patting Roxas' shoulder blade to get his attention. "I signed up for Set Construction, so I'm going to have to go to power tool training. Pick up my script for me, alright? I wouldn't want to miss out on my three lines of glory."

"Awh," said Olette. "Alright. We'll miss you, though."

"Try not to kill yourself," said Pence, by way of encouragement.

"Or anyone else," Roxas added. "After all, anyone who's dumb enough to entrust you with a drill is also probably dumb enough not to move out of the way when you turn it on."

"You guys are so funny." Hayner rolled his eyes. "Catch you later!"

He sprinted off down the aisle towards the stage, where a clump of more handy-minded students were gathering around Xigbar, who'd agreed to supervise the crews for Kairi, as they couldn't operate anything sharp or dangerous without an adult present, and Xigbar counted as an adult, in age if not anything else. Hayner instantly struck up a conversation with a couple of acquaintances, and Roxas thought that he was probably going to have an okay time as long as he watched where he put his fingers.

"Hey, Roxas," said Olette, looking past him. "Who's that guy who keeps waving to you?"

Roxas' mind immediately, sickeningly, spun to the one particular person who would wave at him and whom Olette wouldn't know. When he turned around, he was relieved to see that he was wrong. Well, half wrong. It was Demyx standing halfway across the auditorium, grinning goofily and waving a highly exaggerated manner so that he was attracting the collective attentions of everyone around him. Roxas sighed.

"I have no idea," he said. "Maybe he was at auditions with me. The last thing I need is someone else calling me 'Juliet Boy.'"

"I dunno," said Pence. "Maybe you should go talk to him. He looks kinda desperate."

He did, in fact. Demyx was waving with both of his arms now, and Roxas sighed again and gave in. "Alright. Save me a seat down in front. I'll be back in a few minutes…I hope."

After glancing from side to side to see if anyone was watching him—of course, no one was—Roxas wove his way though the rows of seats to get to Demyx, who, satisfied, had plopped himself down in one, looking up at Roxas like a puppy expecting a treat.

"I don't know you," Roxas muttered, sitting down in one of the blue padded seats next to Dem's. "Remember? Remember that I don't know you?"

Demyx waved him off. "Oh, come on. We're not still playing _that_ stupid game, are we? I mean, we're going to be seeing a lot more of each other."

Roxas looked Demyx up and down, taking in his neon orange Chucks, his ripped and paint-stained jeans, his blue t-shirt which read "Death to the Czar," probably a band name, knowing Dem, and the horrendously long, multicolored knit scar draped around his neck. Of course, it was all topped off with that ridiculous mullet haircut of his. "Not to be superficial," Roxas said, half-serious, "but most of my friends are normal, and they're going to have questions. For example—" He picked up the end of the scarf and held it up, raising an eyebrow. "What is _this_?"

"Oh, you like it?" asked Demyx, looking pleased. "I call it the Awesome Scarf. I made it in the tenth grade. My favorite cousin taught me to knit, and I just couldn't bring myself to stop."

"Ah." That explained a lot.

"Yeah." Demyx looked down at himself. "Every part of my wardrobe has a story, actually. 'Death to the Czar' was the first band I was ever in, in middle school. We called ourselves alternative European rock metal fusion. It was great. None of us could play our instruments well at that point, though, so it was actually kind of a disaster. And, let's see…it _looks_ like all the spots on my jeans are paint, but that one's a ketchup stain, and _some_ of them—"

"That's okay," Roxas cut in. "I didn't really need to know."

Demyx shrugged. "Well, whatever. Anyway, I wanted to tell you something exciting!" He stuck out his chin proudly. "_You're_ looking at the assistant sound crew chief for _Romeo and Juliet_."

"No," Roxas said in disbelief, all embarrassment forgotten. "Really, Dem? That's great! How did that happen?"

"Well, they were just going to make me a regular crew member, but I showed them all the funky shit that I can do with a soundboard, and the crew chief decided to promote me." He tossed a bit of hair out of his eyes. "It pays off, hanging around tech people in bands. You learn a lot."

"Well, that's incredible!" Roxas exclaimed, completely honest. "So we _will_ be seeing a lot of each other. Maybe even enough to become real friends, huh?"

"Oh, definitely," Demyx said. "After all, I'll probably be the one sticking my hand down your costume, putting your mic pack in." He flashed Roxas a smile. "Hope Axel won't mind, right?"

Roxas blinked. "Why would Axel mind?"

"What am I minding, now?" asked Axel, coming up from behind them and dropping his bag on the seat next to Roxas. "That you, Demyx, are sitting over here making eyes at Xiggy, and that you, Roxas, are letting him?"

"I am _not_ making eyes," Demyx retorted, looking a bit uncomfortable. "But keep your voice down. He's _here_, you know."

"And surrounded by plenty of young, fair admirers, who are all clamoring for hammers and nails and all sorts of racy things," said Axel. "He wouldn't hear me if I shouted for him. 'Yo, Xigbar—'"

Demyx put his head in his hands and groaned, and Roxas patted him on the back. "There, there. Ignore the bad man and he'll go away."

"That may work for _some_ bad men," Axel said, sitting on the armrest of Roxas' chair, "but not for me. And I am a _very_ bad man. Move over, Blondie. I want to sit down."

Then, almost as if on a cue, Roxas heard, "Um, Rox, are these friends of yours?"

Roxas looked up. Sora was peeking around Axel, looking a tad confused but not terribly shocked. Roxas was quick to respond with the answer that he and Axel had rehearsed right at the beginning of their friendship, under mutual agreement. "No, these two? They just started talking to me. They're no friends of _mine_."

Demyx rolled his eyes, but said nothing to the contrary. Sora, oddly enough, almost looked a little disappointed. "Oh, well, then, I guess you can't introduce us." He turned to Axel. "You're Axel, right? Hi, I'm Sora."

"Um, hi," said Axel, evidently as confused as Roxas. "I know. I was hitting on your girlfriend, remember?"

Sora shrugged. "Yeah, but I figured that was just a way to get her attention so she would cast you. I mean, you obviously weren't _serious_, and it worked, right?" He grinned. "So that doesn't matter. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I thought you did a really good job with your monologue. Like, that's exactly what I thought Mercutio should act like."

"Thanks…" Axel wasn't yet sure whether this was a trap. Few other members of the cast or the crew had voluntarily come up to speak with him or Demyx yet. Maybe they were too scared to.

But naturally that wouldn't bother Sora, who said, "Well, Kairi wanted me to come and ask you guys to come sit down in the front with the rest of us. We're going to start the meeting in a minute."

"Dem and I are gonna chill up here for a little bit," Axel said casually, and Roxas noted the purposeful omission of his name. "But we'll be down in a sec."

"Cool. You coming, Rox? We saved you a seat."

"Yeah, I'm coming," said Roxas, and he got up and obediently followed Sora down the aisle to the front of the auditorium. As soon as they were out of Axel and Demyx's earshot, he turned around and demanded, "What was _that_?"

"That was an introduction," Sora said. "I mean, no one else was going to talk to them, in case you haven't noticed. And I figured I could let the Kairi thing slide in the face of basic human decency." He sighed. "I guess people just think certain things about their class."

"Their class?"

"They're both _Delinquents_," Sora said meaningfully. "From Drama for Delinquents. You know, the class that you have to have a file in the principal's office like yay big to get into." He held his hands about a foot apart.

"I sort of guessed," Roxas admitted, scratching at the back of his neck. "I think that that Axel kid has it out for me."

Sora looked surprised. "What? Just because of that thing at the audition? Roxas, that's silly. I mean, he was _right_, you were a really good Juliet." He shook his head. "He seems okay, I think. Just a little misunderstood."

"You'd say that," said Roxas, feeling a little queasy. He and Axel had agreed, via a cell phone conversation which had taken place yesterday, that this friendship that they were going to cultivate in a public setting had to be gradual. But Sora was being so supportive about Axel being involved in drama that Roxas was beginning to sense traces of that old twinge of guilt. "You think the best of everyone."

"That's not _true_," said Sora. "Remember that creepy old Maleficent lady who lived down the street from us when we were growing up? The one I thought for sure kidnapped little kids and baked them into pies and ate their hearts for dessert?" He paused. "And I'm not too fond of Mr. Xemnas, either."

"Those are two exceptions. You think Axel's okay, and he's the one who practically burned down the school last year!" Roxas wondered, a bit too late, how he'd somehow gotten on the wrong side of this argument, and thought that his stomach was reacting rather justly to the irony of it all.

Noticing nothing, Sora shrugged again. "It looks like he's turning himself around, though. I mean, being in drama seems more constructive than being a pyro. I'll just tell Kairi not to let him around anything flammable."

Roxas' eyes desperately sought a distraction, and they found one over Sora's head. "Speaking of Kairi, she's glaring daggers at us. We'd better sit down."

Kairi was, in fact, yelling at set con to quiet down so she could talk to them, but she didn't appear to be happy about it, so Sora looked up, grinned at his girlfriend, then beat it to the seats, joining Riku down in the front. Roxas sought out Pence and Olette and the seat they'd saved for him. Only about thirty seconds later, they were joined by Axel and Demyx. Roxas knew because he felt someone's heel pressing against the back of his chair. He turned around and glared, earning only a cheeky smile from Axel, before dutifully paying attention to Kairi like the good boy he was.

"Wow," Kairi was saying, looking a bit overwhelmed now that she had everyone's attention. Selphie, on her right, was watching everyone with wide eyes. "I can't believe you're all here! This is amazing." She paused. "How many of you have never done drama at Ansem High before?"

A good deal of hands went up all around the auditorium. Olette's stayed down. She'd been in the chorus of the previous year's musical, and was a veteran of costumes crew. Other than that, Roxas thought about half of the people there, excluding himself, were newbies. Kairi was obviously pleased.

"Well, welcome! I'm really glad do to see all of you here today. Of course, before we get to the fun stuff, there are a few things we have to get out of the way…"

She nodded to Selphie, who began to distribute a mountain of paper, and Roxas truthfully zoned out a bit as Kairi chatted about actor contracts and calendars and the set design, things he knew should be important to him, but that he couldn't really bring himself to care about. He couldn't shake his amazement at how little Axel's, well, "Delinquency" had mattered to Sora. Of course, Sora was different from about ninety percent of Roxas' other friends, but even so. He hadn't cared at all. But it was probably just the social context, what with Axel trying to be a better person and participate in drama program and all. If it had been two years ago…

Well, who was to say that anything would have been different? Sora had been just as tolerant then as he was now. Maybe he would have accepted the whole Axel thing without question. Maybe Roxas wouldn't have had to go around lying to everyone for two years. Maybe—

"I'm going to let all the crews break off now," Kairi said. "Cast, stay down here for the read-through. Selphie's going to hand out the scripts."

Olette, who'd signed up for costumes again, looked vaguely confused. "I should probably go check in with the chief," she said. "But I _do_ have lines in the first scene…I'll be really quick. Get a script for me, too, okay Rox?"

Roxas nodded, and she went off to seek out the crew chief, a senior girl named Aerith. Olette's seat had only been vacated for about three seconds before a pile of red and leather casually oozed into it, not seeming to care that there were two rather surprised teenage boys on either side of him, one of whom also looked rather mortified.

"What are you _doing_?" Roxas hissed, glancing from side to side.

Axel gave him what was perhaps the most exasperating smirk in the entire world. He might even have had an edge over Riku, with that one. "Just getting to know you, Blondie," he said. "After all, my only friend abandoned me for sound, and I only know you and chipmunk up in front."

"But that's Olette's seat!" Pence protested.

Axel's gaze momentarily swiveled to him before fixing back on Roxas again. "Piggy doesn't have the conch, Ralph. Why is he talking to me?"

"Literary references won't help you," Roxas groaned. "Especially not offensive ones. I'd heard you were turning over a new leaf. You're not doing a very good job."

"And this isn't _Lord of the Flies_," Kairi cut in from up front, half-serious. "If it were, the pig getting stabbed here would be _you_, Axel. Now can we all please shut up and start this read-through? We only have another hour and a half of rehearsal."

"Ouch." Axel whistled. "Baby got _bite_."

Sinking down in his seat, Roxas accepted three scripts from Selphie and wished he would disappear.

Olette returned about thirty seconds later, but didn't react to the presence in her old chair. Instead, she just frowned and took the seat next to Roxas, who dutifully handed her her script and listened to Sampson and Gregory (both girls) engage in some intense verbal sparring.

The read-through proceeded unremarkably for the next couple of minutes. In fact, it was in the second half of scene one that Roxas, Kairi, and Axel encountered the very same problem, namely, keeping straight faces as Sora and Riku shared an almost completely innocent exchange.

"Ay me! sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast?" read Riku's Romeo, with the appropriate amount of forlorn teenage angst. Shocker, really. Where could he possibly have gotten that from?

"It was," replied Sora's Benvolio. "What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?"

"Not having that, which, having, makes them short," Riku lamented.

"In love?" asked Sora.

Axel snickered. Roxas elbowed him in the gut, but felt like smacking himself in the forehead as well. He looked up at Kairi, in the front, who was making a great show of professionalism but was probably thinking, "Oh, oops. _This_."

"Out—" said Riku warily, as if he, too, couldn't believe where this was going.

"Of love?" prompted Sora innocently.

"Out of her favour, where I am in love."

"'Her?'" Axel whispered fiercely. "I think he just called Sora a girl. That's not very nice."

"_Shut up_," Roxas responded, feeling both mortified and murderous at once. "They'll hear you."

"He can't even date Sora, though," Axel mused. "I mean, they're cousins. No wonder the poor guy is so anguished."

Roxas sighed. "They're talking about _Rosaline_," he growled. "Romeo has an incredible amount of unrequited lust for Rosaline, who has sworn not to sleep with anyone. Being the teenage angst-bucket that he is, he is incredibly upset by this. It is very simple. Benvolio is just there to be spoken at."

Indeed, Riku had just launched into one of a few lengthy speeches on Rosaline and her inability to be seduced properly. "Oh," said Axel, adopting a tone of mock-innocence. "I'm sorry. I was distracted by a flying real-life situation. I won't let it happen again."

"Better not," said Roxas, knowing that that, of course, was not going to be the case at all.

Axel remained well behaved through scene two, though, which Roxas considered a miracle. He almost wished that the redhead would say something. After all, Roxas' first lines as Juliet were only minutes away, and he was getting nervous. What if he said them wrong? What if he said them _all_ wrong? What if his inflection was off and his vocal tone was horrible? What if he choked up? What if casting him had been a bigger mistake than he'd thought?

Aside from the school play in fifth grade, he'd never really done this acting stuff before, and in that play he'd been the hind legs of a caterpillar. Not exactly a complex, deep, powerful part which required a lot of thought. Juliet needed more thought than that, if only to make her appear less annoying and stereotypical to the audience's eyes. What if he couldn't do it? What if he just came off as himself?

Then, to his left, he heard Pence say, in a shrill falsetto, "Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old, I bade her come. What, lamb! What, ladybird! God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet!"

Everyone cracked up laughing, including Kairi, who'd been dutifully jotting down some very directorial notes. Oh _man_. If Pence did the whole part _just_ like that…

His nervousness dissipated, Roxas spoke his first real words as Juliet as the giggles ebbed away. "How now! Who calls?" And the hardest part was over.

Or so he thought.

---

"And the look on your _face_ when Riku started reading 'What light through yonder window breaks?' It was _priceless_," Pence said as they were walking home, not bothering to hide his laugh. "Kairi's going to have her hands full getting you two to even act like you _like_ each other."

"I'm almost sorry I missed it," said Hayner. "But I was onstage, learning now to use a saw. And yes, I still have all of my fingers."

"Mazel tov," Roxas muttered. "And _you_ still have your dignity to go with them."

Olette gave him a sympathetic hug. "Oh, you were great, Roxas. No one _cares_ that you're Juliet. Half of the girls in it are playing guys, and look at Pence! Everyone loved Pence."

Pence cleared his throat. "Well, the Nurse is a part I was born to play."

"Yeah," said Hayner. "You have the man-boobs for it."

"No comments from the peanut gallery," said Olette, hitting him lightly on the shoulder. Relations between them had been a little strained when they'd broken up in the middle of sophomore year, but everything had pretty much returned to normal since then. Hayner only rubbed his arm and mouthed an "ow" in reply.

"Besides," she continued, "Didn't you see how hard the cast was listening when you were speaking? Both you and Riku had everyone's attention."

"Especially when you read those scenes together," Pence added, trying to be helpful. "I mean, your face was totally wrong, but your voice was right."

Like many helpful things, it backfired, and Hayner said, "Ooh, Roxas and Riku, sitting in a tree, F-U—"

"How old are you?!" Roxas exclaimed in exasperation. "Five?"

"Five and a _half_ this December," Hayner corrected, shrugging. "I don't think it would really work out between you and Riku anyway, though. I mean, he's completely and totally infatuated with—"

"We know!" cried Pence and Olette, who glanced at Roxas with some trepidation.

Roxas only shrugged as well, playing Mr. Maturity. "Hey, if Riku likes Sora—"

His phone rang just then, mercifully sparing him from ever completing the sentence but erupting into the rather embarrassing ring tone he'd downloaded in the middle of freshman year, the one which served as a warning as to who would be on the other end of the line. He flipped the cell phone open before the song could continue, ignoring the quizzical looks from his friends, and quickly said, "Yeah, what's up?"

"Hey," said Axel. "Get to the meeting place. I want to talk to you."

"I'm a block away from school!"

"Walk fast. Bye."

There was a click, and the line went dead. Roxas sighed, then quickly conjured an explanation. "That was Sora," he said. "He stayed behind to talk to Kairi, and—holy crap, I just remembered I forgot my math textbook in my locker. I'm going to run back for it."

The excuse sounded hollow in his ears. Olette said, "Want us to wait for you?"

"Nah, I'm good," he rushed. "See you later!"

He dropped his skateboard on the pavement and took off, glad that he'd thought to bring it to school that day. Axel was so annoying whenever he got into one of these demanding moods. Roxas had half a mind not to go back, but he had a few choice words to share with a certain tall, redheaded friend of his that he was fairly sure would burst Axel's bubble.

Axel was leaning against the trashcan when Roxas arrived, panting slightly, mostly annoyed. "Well?" he demanded. "What did you want?"

"Just to see you, dollface," said Axel. "Miss me?"

"Oh, for crying out loud…"

Grinning, Axel added, "No, no, I wanted a thorough critique of my performance today. How was I?"

Roxas sighed, shaking his head, smiling a bit in response. He propped his skateboard up against the wall and went over to stand next to Axel. "As Mercutio? I was impressed. I didn't think you knew what half of those words meant."

"I don't," Axel admitted, pulling a white paperback out of the pocket of his jacket. "This does."

"You _cheater_." Roxas crossed his arms. "_No Fear Shakespeare_? That's low, even for you."

Axel rapped him on the head with it. "Hypocrite. I know for a _fact_ you used one of these when you were reading _Hamlet_." He flipped it open to the begininng of act three and read, "'Hang out? Who do you think we are, musicians in a band?"

"It loses something in the translation," Roxas said. "But I guess it's good for orienting yourself. So does that mean you were reading outside of school? Of your own free will?"

"Shh." Axel pressed a finger to Roxas' lips. "Don't tell anyone. You'll ruin my reputation."

Roxas batted Axel's hand away. "I think the _Lord of the Flies_ reference today did that. Now everyone knows you're literate."

"Hey, _LotF _was a kickass book. Now I know what not to do if I'm ever stuck on a desert island with a bunch of British schoolboys." Axel slipped the _No Fear Shakespeare_ into his pocket. "Speaking of schoolboys, you were a lovely Juliet."

"If I hear _one more word_ about me as Juliet—"

"Now, now…" Axel leaned forward casually and draped his arms around Roxas' neck. "Don't be so touchy. I just wanted to say that you gave lover-boy Riku a run for his money."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "_Riku_. God, I'm either going to strangle him or castrate him. I haven't decided which yet."

"Smother him with a pillow," Axel suggested. "It'd be fun."

Laughing, at himself, at Axel, Roxas said, "What is _with_ you?"

"What's with me? I'm the same lovely, charming person I've always been. What's with _you_, my dear Juliet?"

"No, I mean…I thought you said we were going to take this friendship-in-front-of-other-people thing slow. But you were hanging all over me today."

"Ah." Axel bent forward a bit, so that the two of them were talking with their foreheads touching. For some reason, Roxas couldn't bring himself to find this odd in the slightest. It felt _comfortable_, actually. Axel grinned. "See, I figured it would be fun if we had one of those friendships where I antagonize you until you realize that you actually like me."

"That's not a friendship," said Roxas softly, fiercely. "That's a _romance novel_."

"Oh, yes, and there's nothing romance novel about us to begin with," said Axel. "Hot, dangerous guy from the wrong side of the tracks befriends youthful, innocent girl from the right side?"

"I'm not female."

"Juliet?"

"I'm_ not female_," Roxas growled.

"See, you're denying it _now_," Axel chuckled. "But someday you will wake up in the morning and realize the truth. That you _are_ a girl, and, what's more, that you have been madly in love with me all along. And everyone will cheer, and the credits will roll, and we'll all live happily ever after."

"Oh, yeah, like _that's_ ever—"

"Sorry, guys!" Demyx exclaimed cheerfully from behind them. "Am I interrupting something? Please, carry on. Ignore me. I'll be right here with the camera."

"No gay porn for you," said Roxas forcefully, pushing Axel away from him, realizing quite belatedly what they must have looked like. He made a mental note to tell Axel later to observe that whole "personal bubble" thing when they were in public together. People might start getting ideas.

Demyx looked disappointed. "Awh. Well, I just wanted to tell that lazy good-for-nothing that he has to be at work in an hour, so if we're going to grab dinner we might as well do it now."

"Oh, right. Work." Axel sighed. "Tif's gonna kill me if I'm late again." He turned back to Roxas. "Goodnight, goodnight, parting is such—"

"Yeah, yeah," said Roxas. "Get out of here."

He was gone with a grin and a wave, and Roxas retrieved his skateboard and started home alone, shaking his head all the way. Oh, Axel.

---

**_A/N: _**Oh, Axel indeed. That's all.


	5. Act Three, Part One

**_A/N:_** Guess. Who is. ALIVE! Voluntarily subjecting yourself to four three-to-four hour tests in one week is not something I'd recommend for anyone, under any circumstances, but it all turned out alright, right? Right?

In other news, I said I wouldn't be writing this week for studying. In the past week alone, this story somehow grew 1.5 times longer than it used to be. Oops? If I fail European History, I am blaming myself.

Lots of reviews, so let me thank you all.

Chapter three:** RGS, Rei-chan94, The Infamous Villain, animebecca, Aindel S. Druida, SarahXxUnlovedxX, leafyaki,** and **Mitsuru Aki**.

Chapter four: **leafyaki, Nezumi's Cheese, Miss-Lena, i'm just a reader** (if you ever do get an account, PM me, I'd love to have a discussion with you)**, kelseywazhere, loki lee, j u li eT l o v e you, Aindel S. Druida, The Infamous Villain, Figment of an Imagination, Hush. Little. Baby, Mitsuru Aki, animebecca, EmeraldxSapphire,** and **SarahXxUnlovedxX**. Whew!

**Warnings:** This chapter has boys kissing. So...if by some chance you're reading an AkuRoku story with the expectation you won't find that, turn back now! In case you're wondering why this is happening right now, it is because some of the people on the forum where I also post this were mildly put out at Axel obviously crushing on Roxas without doing anything about it. So, he does something about it. Sort of. In a way that doesn't hurt the plot much.

Enjoy!

**---**

**Act 3, Scenes 1-5: Maybe a Mistake**

---

The next week and a half of rehearsal was fairly straightforward. They were to spend a the rest of the week—with Friday off—blocking the show, but blocking ended up trickling into the next week as well, as that first Tuesday they had to finish up their read-through and blocking two acts in two hours proved to be a tad optimistic, especially with their chatty and rather ADD cast. The scenes involving almost the entire cast, namely the last scene of act one and the first scene of act three, took way longer than expected to block, but they eventually got through them and the rest of the play. Eventually.

Kairi was putting her all into it, though, and Roxas was impressed with her. He knew her to be a very sweet, forgiving person, occasionally stubborn but usually the type of girl who would be well-suited in a room with a bunch of agreeable little puppies and rather tame small children. However, when it came to directing, she cracked the whip, making full use of a stone-cold voice or the trademark directorial glare. Despite a couple of minor setbacks, like having to rehearse in the orchestra pit until set con, well, constructed the set, she managed to remain, to many people's surprises, a constantly commanding presence. She demanded attention, and she demanded it now.

Truthfully, most of the cast would have been happy to give it to her under normal circumstances. But it was a Thursday afternoon, the second Thursday of rehearsals, and Friday was tomorrow, and many of them (Roxas included) had had a math test earlier in the day and were restless and wanted to chat with their friends. And then, of course, there were other problems.

"Alright," Kairi sighed, flipping through her script for the zillionth time that day. "Fine. We're going to take it from Tybalt's line, 'This, by his voice, should be a Montague.' Everyone know where they should be standing? Everybody have their script?" She punctuated this last with a calculated glare in Axel's direction, because the redhead somehow managed to misplace his every three days. "Good. Go."

Tybalt launched angrily into his tirade against Romeo, and Roxas focused on what he was supposed to be doing. Which, right then, was not much. Ideally, he'd be doing some kind of 1600s-era circle dance with about half of the rest of the cast while Riku-Romeo ogled him from behind, but that hadn't been choreographed or worked out yet, so he and the rest of the cast just sort of walked around in circles while Capulet reprimanded Tybalt for being a "saucy boy" and everyone else in the scene tried not to laugh. One of the things Kairi kept telling them all to think about was remaining in character when they weren't the focus of the action, but she always added that this was very early in the rehearsal process and that they all had time to get it right.

Roxas was fond of the rest of the cast, with a couple of exceptions—well, Riku, basically. Seifer was Tybalt and he wasn't Roxas' favorite person in the world under any circumstances (and one of the few who _did_ call Roxas "Juliet Boy"), but Juliet didn't have to interact with him. Riku, of course, was a different story. Roxas was glad, though, that he got to see so much of Olette and Pence, and the girl playing Capulet, whose name Roxas could somehow never remember, was fun to talk to between scenes. Kairi had been right about the drama community. Few people within it batted their eyes at Roxas playing Juliet, and many more of them were willing to welcome him into the Ansem High drama family with open arms.

He felt the tug on his free hand, the one not holding his script, and turned, realizing with a sickening jolt that not only would he have to go back to acting again, but that this was the first Romeo and Juliet interaction, and the first time they'd run it through outside of blocking. Kairi wouldn't expect them to actually act, would she? Well, not very well. Right? _Right_?

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand," Riku began, and Roxas reacted to the rest of the line as he thought he was supposed to, smiling, surprised, glancing back at his father, at the Nurse, to see if anyone was paying attention, and generally looking anywhere but at Riku until the end of the line. He glimpsed Kairi jotting down a note which was probably "look at Romeo more" but he couldn't really care about that right now.

"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much," Roxas replied, feeling a bit ill, attempting to channel it into what should have been a blush instead. The nausea only increased as he continued reading Juliet's lines, pretending he didn't know them and that he had to rely on the script as a guide. He was almost relieved when he finished with "…And palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss" until he remembered that there was more scene to read.

"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?" asked Riku.

"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer."

"Oh, then, dear saint—"

"Okay, cut," said Kairi, sounding vaguely distressed. "Guys, really. I know I said I didn't want to stop you much today, but this is sad. I mean, this is how you react to each other? You don't even have to kiss yet! You should have no problems getting within three feet of one another. Riku, you're barely even holding his hand."

Riku and Roxas exchanged a mutually uncomfortable glance, and Kairi sighed. "Guys, look, it's acting. You can act. That's why I cast you."

"Besides," Axel added from across the orchestra pit, over the drone of set con's saws. "_Real_ men aren't afraid to get physical with each other. Take me." He winked at Kairi. "Please."

Kairi was not amused. "_Axel_. Don't break character. Go back to your corner."

"And by my corner," Axel said innocently. "You mean stage right? Where I am standing and talking to Benvolio? And, you know, I don't think that was all too out of character for—"

"Axel," Kairi nearly growled. "Go back and talk to Benvolio. And _you two_," she added, turning her attention back to Riku and Roxas. "I will make you stay after rehearsal and go through so many intimacy exercises that your eyes will bleed if you do not shape up."

"Ooh," said Axel. "Kinky."

"And by intimacy exercises, what do you mean?" Sora piped up from across the auditorium, sounding less than enthusiastic about the idea of Riku doing whatever they were with Roxas.

"If she told you, kiddo, she wouldn't be able to use them as a threat anymore," Axel explained. "But if you want, Kai, I could teach lover-boy a lesson or two about how to get physical with Blondie over there, free of charge."

"Thanks but no thanks," said Roxas, adding an "asshole" on the end for good measure.

"Close, Blondie. It's Axel." Axel raised an eyebrow. "A-X-E-L. Got it mem—"

"If you two are _done_," Kairi interjected. "We have a scene to finish." She sighed, and pressed her hand to her forehead in exasperation.

"You alright, Kai?" asked Sora in his best concerned-boyfriend way.

She nodded and looked up. "Yeah, I'm fine. Here's what I want you two to do. Romeo, I want you to have both of your hands on Juliet in some way throughout this entire scene. And look into each other's eyes as much as possible. Got it?" They nodded, albeit hesitantly, and she sighed again. "Just try to act like you can _stand_ each other. Alright, pick it up from 'Oh, then, dear saint.' And go."

---

"Well," said Kairi later. "That went as well as could be expected."

"Well for _you_, maybe," Roxas replied, stuffing his poor, abused script into his backpack. "Riku was not the one groping _you_."

She rolled her eyes. "Riku was _not_ groping you. In fact, I noticed that he kept his hands quite respectfully above the belt."

"You must have been disappointed," Roxas muttered.

"I was _not_. The scene looked ten times better the way you did it. And you were looking at each other, which was a definite improvement." Kairi closed her directorial binder with a snap and eased it gently into her much better organized backpack. "Besides, I don't think Riku will be groping you in earnest anytime soon. We've established that you're not his type."

"Oh, right. He likes _darker_ hair."

Kairi coughed. "Where _has_ that boyfriend of mine run off to, speaking of absolutely nothing?"

"He said he was going to meet us at the front of the school, I think," said Roxas. "He had to pick up something from his locker. His History textbook?"

"Figures." She yawned, and began to walk up the aisle. "This directing is sapping all of my energy. Let's go, then."

"It's not only doing that," Roxas pointed out, keeping pace. "It's making you bossier. I didn't think you had it in you to yell at anyone."

"Well, it was Axel, and it was a special case." She shook her head. "He has to learn that no means no. It's bad enough that he's distracting the cast like this. If I thought for an instant that he was being _serious_ about wanting to date me or sleep with me or whatever—"

"He isn't? He's being pretty persistent."

"You can't believe anything he says," said Kairi dismissively, and Roxas knew firsthand that this was true. "While I'm sure he wouldn't mind getting laid, I can pretty definitively say that he's not serious about _me_."

Roxas shrugged. It was sort of a relief. Axel actually crushing on Kairi would put things in a more awkward perspective than they were already in, what with Riku and all. "That's good. Sora won't have to challenge Axel to a duel."

Kairi looked at him as if he'd completely missed the point of that last sentence, but smiled anyway. "That would turn out really unfortunately for both of them, actually. Sora's pretty strong when he wants to be."

"I know. I have the scars. Fifth grade was an _awful_ year."

"Awh, poor you." Kairi giggled. "Sometimes I wonder how your mom could deal with raising both of—do you hear something?"

Cocking his head to the side, Roxas closed his eyes and listened. "Yes," he said finally. "It sounds like music." He paused. "And did Sora just laugh?"

They glanced at each other, then ran for the door, curious as to the source of the mysterious sounds. Roxas didn't think he knew anyone who played guitar that well. Not anyone who Sora would know, that was.

But Sora made friends easily, and as they closed in on the main entrance of the school Roxas heard, "Wow, that's incredible! What else do you play?"

"A lot of stuff," said Demyx, demonstrating with a another skilled riff on his guiter. "I started out on drums, actually, but then got into piano. Then I got kind of bored with that, and got more into the strings. Plucked strings. It's mostly the guitar for me now. And the sitar, actually. You know what a sitar is?"

"Some type of Indian thing, right?" asked Sora. "That's so cool! Who taught you how to play _that_?"

"Friend of my dad's," Dem replied. "He's been teaching me for years. It's pretty hard to learn, actually. Painful. I've got the calluses to prove it. From that _and_ guitar." As Roxas and Kairi came out of the doorway, he was sitting on the ledge in front of the school, acoustic guitar in his lap, holding up his hand and wiggling his fingers in front of Sora's face. "See?"

Sora stared. "Ow."

"Totally worth it, though," Demyx said, then looked up and added, "Oh, hey, Roxas."

"Roxas?" Sora turned to face them, grinning. "Hey, Kai. Kai, you know Demyx, right?"

"I don't think so," said Kairi politely. "Nice to meet you."

Demyx inclined his head. "You, too. You're the director, am I right? Sora was telling me how hard you're working on this thing. I think it's great."

"Demyx is on sound," Sora added with enthusiasm. "He's assistant chief. They haven't started meeting yet, though."

"You know, I think I knew that," said Kairi. "That you were assistant chief, I mean. I just didn't know who _you_ were." She smiled, a genuine apology. "Sorry."

"No big," said Demyx, waving her off.

"We'd better be getting home, though," she said. "There's a ton of work due tomorrow."

"Oh, man, she's so right," said Sora, standing and taking Kairi's hand, sharing one of those small, private smiles with her before turning back. "As always. See you around, Dem. You coming, Rox?"

"I'm going to stay for a second to talk to Demyx," said Roxas casually. "I just want to check out his guitar. You know me, I'll catch up. Don't wait."

Sora nodded, waved at Demyx, and started off down the path, hand in hand with Kairi. Demyx rested his head on his hand thoughtfully and watched them go. "Your brother's such a sweetheart," he said to Roxas. "It's really easy to see how a certain someone could be completely and totally in love with—"

"I really hope you're talking about Kairi," said Roxas, dropping his bag on the ground and sliding into Sora's place on the ledge. "Because the next person to tell me about Riku's stupid infatuation is getting strangled."

Demyx rolled his eyes. "And how is rehearsal going, darling?"

Roxas sighed. "I mean, we still have a lot of time, left, but Riku and I…we're having trouble being comfortable with each other onstage. It's just kind of awkward. I mean, every time I look at him all I can think about is how much I hate him."

"Go easier on him," said Demyx. "I bet this isn't any picnic for him, either. I mean, you're Sora's _brother_."

"I _am_ aware, Dem, thanks." He shook his head. "What are you doing here, though, if you don't have rehearsal? I thought you'd be miles away from school by now."

"I have a gig tonight," Demyx said, indicating his guitar. "With my new band. It's halfway across town, though, and I didn't want to take the bus with Rosie here." He tapped the guitar affectionately, the . "So Axel's giving me a ride before he has to go to work."

"Axel…" Roxas sighed. "That's another problem. I wish he'd lay off on me a little during rehearsal. He's _always_ teasing me."

"Hey, in his defense, it's tough for him, this not-knowing-you thing." Demyx patted Roxas on the shoulder. "I mean, you're sort of the most important person in his life right now. Didn't you know that?"

"I…" He blinked. "Not really, no. I mean, he's got other friends, right?"

Demyx stared, then laughed. "Are you _serious_? I mean, yeah, he's got other friends, but…" He shook his head, then rolled his eyes. "You are a strange kid, Roxas. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Or…" He glanced down at his chest. "Whatever we punk emo indie misfits have inside."

"Coming from you, that means a lot," said Roxas, standing and slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "Anyway, I have to go. Tell Axel 'hi' for me."

"I'll give him a hug and a kiss from you," Demyx offered. "How's that?"

"Somehow, I don't think it would make Xigbar very happy," Roxas teased, wondering why Demyx would even suggest something like that. The pout he got in return for the barb made it totally worth it, though, and Roxas laughed. "Take care, Dem."

"You too, buddy," said Demyx. "You too."

---

The weekend rolled around as it always did, and Roxas found himself over at Axel's place. He was a little nervous about being there unannounced—wouldn't Axel's parents mind?—but Axel insisted that his mother worked late on weekends anyway and didn't care who he brought home. And that was how he ended up in Axel's room, in all of its poster-plastered glory, sitting on Axel's bed, staring at the small, gently used television set up across from him. Convenient, yes, but Axel's bed was comfortable, and Roxas was genuinely afraid that he might fall asleep before the movie was over.

Although, as options went, that one wouldn't be too bad. He'd miss out on Axel's complaining.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," Axel muttered, tossing up the DVD case and catching it. "This is the girliest night in ever. Should we paint each other's nails and do each other's hair and talk about boys? Because, you know, Riku's totally hot, and I am so jealous that you get to make out with him. Like, ohmigod."

Roxas made a disapproving noise. "If you ever say anything like that again, I'm going to disown you. _You_ said you wanted to see the movie."

Axel sighed. "I said I wanted to examine the different interpretations of my character throughout the ages. I did not say I wanted to compromise my dignity by staying home on a Saturday night to watch _Romeo and Juliet _with you."

"Well, you didn't seem to mind when I suggested it," Roxas pointed out, grabbing the DVD case from Axel and opening it, holding the shiny disc up to the light to check for scratches. "Besides, I got us the modern one. The acting's terrible, but I thought you'd appreciate the guns."

"Ooh." Axel rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "How much begging do you think it would take to make Kairi give us guns instead of swords? Because that would be _awesome_."

Roxas sighed, then got on his hands and knees to cross the room and insert the disc into his DVD player. "Somehow, I don't think she'd be willing to take suggestions from you," he said. "Besides, she's a fan of the Zeffirelli version. All of these flashy transition modern adaptation things are too much for her."

"Pity. Poor girl doesn't know what she's missing."

Standing, Roxas crossed the room and sat down on Axel's bed. "Like what?"

"Like _Moulin Rouge!_, which was directed by the same guy," said Axel, who quickly added, "Not that I've ever seen that. But, uh."

Roxas smiled, punching him affectionately on the shoulder. "Bet you have. Bet you cried at the end when Nicole Kidman died."

"Oh, look," said Axel dryly. "You spoiled the movie for me."

"You so did." Roxas laughed. "Wimp."

"I plead the fifth. Actually, I laughed." As he retrieved the remote, however, Axel just so happened to thwack Roxas on the head with it, and whistled innocently when Roxas turned to stare. Then he laughed and pulled Roxas down by the arm. "Lie down and make yourself comfortable, will you? Whose house did you say you were staying at tonight?"

"Hayner's. And he thinks I'm on a date, so he's covering for me."

Axel chuckled derisively. "What a bad little boy you are, having a date that lasts _all night long_."

"Yes, well, I don't think I'm going to be scoring with you," said Roxas shortly. "So it doesn't matter. Besides, in terms of dates lasting all night long, your track record is much worse than mine, I'm almost positive."

"While this is one hundred and ten percent true," said Axel, who had to mull it over for a moment, "it doesn't make you any less of a dirty little liar. What if I did score with you, as you so classily put it?"

"You wouldn't. I'd scream rape. The neighbors would come running, and you'd be arrested. And that would really put a damper on this whole romantic evening we've planned." Roxas sighed. "This whole situation really is all so very _Twilight_ of us. We should be careful, or I'll end up a vampire and you'll end up pregnant with my demon spawn."

"There is no way in _hell_ I am the girl in that stupid book, which, by the way, I can't believe you know the plot of."

Roxas snorted. "What, you think I've _read_ it? It was all Olette and Naminé and Kairi talked about last year. I'd have had to dig a hole to the center of the earth to have escaped from it."

"Wait," Axel said. "Wait, back up. Kairi read it? As in, my future wife? I thought she had better taste than that." He snorted. "Was she all 'Eddie-poo is gorgeous, but he's not nearly as perfect as my Sora-kins,' or what?"

"I have no idea why we are friends," said Roxas, who leaned his head down on his arm and noticed the television glaring with all the disdain of an appliance ignored. "And we missed the entire prologue and part of scene one. Just watch. They're going to start shooting in a sec."

It had the intended effect. Nothing could quiet Axel down like the promise of impending violence and the spazz-tastic direction of Baz Luhrmann, who, Roxas had to admit, knew a thing or two about camera angles, even if he didn't know much about casting Shakespeare plays. Listening to good ol' boy Leo DiCaprio mangle Romeo's lines in that dry, flat voice of his gave Roxas a new appreciation for Riku. And listening to Axel express just how fun it would be to march around in that tiny silver skirt and those platform heels that Mercutio got to wear in Luhrmann's ball scene gave Roxas a new appreciation for Kairi, whose costume choices would, in all likelihood, be a bit more conservative. No one needed to see Axel in a miniskirt.

He and Axel managed to get through the movie by sharing the bowl of popcorn and laughing when it all got a bit too ridiculous (as when Leo shouted "I am fortune's FOOOOL" with his arms spread out in such a pitifully obvious attempt at Christ figure-dom that neither one of them could contain their chuckles. Romeo would make a terrible Jesus). Axel'd found a beer somewhere, and Roxas didn't really have the heart to tell him to put it away. It was, after all, his house.

"Don't start smoking," he warned, somewhere in the middle of act four when Leo was angsting in the trailer park. "You'll burn the place down. Where's your hand going, by the way? It seems a bit confused."

"Hand?" Axel asked innocently. "Oh, you mean, this one? It's right here." He pressed his fingers into Roxas' stomach, right above his navel. "And it's quite happy to be there, actually. It's not hurting anyone."

"Uh-huh." Roxas slipped his hand under Axel's, as damage control if nothing else. He supposed he should have found that all a little odd. He didn't, really. It was about as odd as watching _Romeo + Juliet_ on Axel's bed with Axel breathing down his neck. That was, it would have been odd if it had been anyone else. Any other male person. It'd be nice to do this with a girl sometime. "Just make sure it doesn't go anywhere else."

Roxas wasn't surprised to feel Axel ease long fingers between his own. "We've already established that molesting you would be a bad idea. My hand had perfectly innocent intentions and just happened to get lost on its way to the remote."

"We all know the truth," said Roxas. "You are a child molester, and I should be running away screaming."

"And, why aren't you?" Axel asked, his voice oddly quiet.

Roxas shrugged. "I just trust you, I guess." He laughed. "Stupid, huh? I trust the guy who nearly burned down half the school last year and pickles his liver on a regular basis. I'm an idiot."

"You could do worse," said Axel pointedly. "You could be Demyx."

"You're awful," Roxas replied, stretching his legs out a bit and accidentally nudging Axel's ankle. "Never change."

"Same to you, Blondie." He could feel Axel smiling. It was all very strange. "Same to you."

And, tuning out Leo's angst-ridden ode to Clare, Roxas did fall asleep, just like that.

---

The next time Roxas was conscious, his eyes were open and the room was dark and sort of half-spinning, as if it were tilted on an axis. This may have been because he'd just woken up, and that happened sometimes, or because he'd had a sip of Axel's beer (nasty stuff) before falling asleep, but that had definitely not been enough to get him drunk and barely counted. He blinked at the ceiling, with the tiny glowing specks lurking at its corners, and noticed for the first time that he was on his back, and that there was something in the way of most of his field of vision. There was also something in his hair which felt suspiciously like a hand.

"This is a dream," Axel said, and Roxas was sure that if he'd been able to see his friend's face he would have seen some kind of weird-ass half-smile. "Doesn't that make sense?"

Roxas blinked. That did, indeed, make a lot of sense. It explained the tilting room, and the glowing specks, and the fact that Axel was petting his hair. Damn weird dream, though. "I guess," he said sleepily. "Mine or yours?"

"Whoever remembers it the clearest in the morning, I think," Axel replied, removing his hand from Roxas' hair. "That seems like a good way to go, doesn't it?"

"Mnh," Roxas replied articulately. "Also, you're crushing my pelvis."

Axel shrugged. "You didn't really need that pelvis," he said, which was something dream-Axel totally would have said, so Roxas was ready to forgo that whole attachment to reality thing, because a dream made much more sense. It was probably Axel's dream, though. Roxas could see Axel's dreams having a vaguely homoerotic bent, whereas he had nice, straight-boy dreams about racecars. When he dreamt at all.

Roxas sighed. "Tell it to my unborn children," he said. "You're heavier than you look. Why were you petting my hair?"

"You had something in it," Axel explained. Roxas was growing accustomed to the dark, then, and he could definitely see Axel's green eyes look him over, once, twice. "I was getting it out."

"Oh."

"You have something on your face, too," Axel said, drawing closer. "Here, let me—"

It was the strangest thing, really, because by the time Axel reached him Roxas had already closed his eyes, as if he knew that Axel's idea of getting something off of his face involved using his mouth to do it. He kept them closed as Axel kissed him, and the whole thing couldn't have lasted more than three seconds, but Axel's lips were so soft and warm that when he pulled away Roxas didn't want him to go, which didn't make much sense, at all, that he wouldn't want _Axel_ to stop kissing him, but it didn't have to, because this was a dream. If it weren't a dream Roxas' brain would have demanded an explanation, but Roxas' brain was slumbering peacefully and didn't care.

"You didn't get it," he said quietly, when Axel's lips were acceptable speaking distance away. "Did you?"

"No," said Axel, who was looking down at Roxas like he'd experienced some kind of religious conversion.

"Figures," he said, and this time when Axel leaned back down he craned his neck up to meet him.

It was strange, too, that this was so okay, and part of Roxas' subconscious obviously thought it was okay, too, which was even stranger. Unless it was Axel's subconscious dictating this whole affair, which made a whole lot more sense, because truthfully Axel struck Roxas as a guy who would have no problem making out with his best friend after having a beer or two, though probably at a party and probably because a game of Spin the Bottle had gone horribly wrong. There was a small part of Roxas which was wondering why Roxas was feeling so much of this if it were, in fact, Axel's dream, but the rest of Roxas was telling that part to shut up and enjoy it while it lasted.

Axel was being unnaturally gentle, which was odd because Roxas figured that if Axel ever kissed anyone he'd probably put a lot of force and tongue and stuff into it, but maybe that was due to this being a dream, too, that Axel was just sort of kissing Roxas very lightly on the lips and running his fingertips along Roxas' jaw and otherwise not doing too much else, and it was still alright. In his somewhat limited experience with making out with people, Roxas knew enough to realize that this would probably have been rather boring if he'd been doing it with someone he didn't like in the attracted-to sense. But this wasn't just any old person he didn't like, it was Axel, and he leaned into Axel's soft, gentle kisses, and somewhere above his head he felt Axel lace their fingers together again, like they'd been when the two of them were watching the movie, and Roxas squeezed Axel's hand when he felt the contact and liked it just a little bit more now than he had then. It was all so very nice, really. Very, very nice, and very comfortable.

For the next few minutes, the only sound Roxas could really process was the pounding of blood in his eardrums as he realized that this was all very realistic for a dream, and while he'd had realistic dreams before they hadn't quite been like this. He figured it might not be a dream, but that would complicate things and be much too much to think about. It was an Occam's razor scenario: it would be easiest to explain away if it was a dream; therefore, it was a dream. But if it wasn't a dream, even though he liked the feeling of Axel's mouth on his and Axel's hands wherever they were right then and his own fingers in Axel's hair, it would probably be best to end this now.

"I'm tired," he murmured against Axel's lips, not bothering to think that people didn't usually feel tired in dreams. His brain really was still asleep. Otherwise it would have been yelling at him over this whole thing. It really would have. "Axel…"

"Alright," said Axel, pressing his lips to Roxas' cheek before getting off of him and settling back in bed beside him, allowing Roxas to turn onto his side. "Go to sleep."

"I _am_ asleep," Roxas pointed out, his heart fluttering. "This is a dream."

"Oh," said Axel, wrapping his arms around Roxas' waist and burying his face in the boy's shoulder. "Yes, of course. All a dream. Go to dream-sleep."

"Because you aren't the type of person who'd take advantage of me in my sleep," Roxas said into the pillow. "Are you?"

"Mmm, not at all." Axel shifted. "Although I'd hardly call this taking advantage. You seemed to like it."

"Well," Roxas said plainly. "It was a dream. Tomorrow I'm going to wake up questioning my sexuality and totally panicking, and it's going to be because of you and your stupid homoerotic subconscious."

"My conscious is pretty homoerotic, too," said Axel. "In case you ever want to make out with a guy again, know that I'm always here for you."

"Point taken, and discarded." Roxas sighed. "That was nice, though. Too bad I'm going to forget about it all in the morning."

"You don't have to."

Roxas blinked. "Well, yes, I do. It'll cause problems."

"I guess it will."

"I'm having enough trouble with dealing with this whole Juliet Boy thing as it is. This would be the least opportune time for a life-changing revelation. It's really very inconsiderate of you and your subconscious to foist this all on me."

"My subconscious is very sorry," said Axel, sounding not the least bit sorry but a little bit sad. "Well, then, forget about it."

"Alright," Roxas said, unable to help curing into Axel just a little bit. "Goodnight, then."

"Goodnight." He felt Axel's lips press briefly against his ear. "Sleep well."

"Yeah." Despite himself, Roxas smiled before drifting off again. "You, too."

---

When Roxas woke up, Axel wasn't there. He supposed that should have been some sort of relief, as the memory of that dream was still very much lodged in his brain and it might have been awkward if he'd woken up with Axel's arms around him. Very awkward. So awkward he might have fallen off the bed and bumped his head and died, because dying would definitely have been preferable to talking to Axel right then.

But Axel wasn't there, so Roxas didn't have to die, and instead he sat up very slowly, rubbing his head, wondering if the popcorn had been drugged because otherwise a dream like that surfacing out of nowhere would have been positively ludicrous. He wouldn't really put it past Axel to lace the popcorn with LSD or something, and before the easygoing and more sexually deviant part of him could argue that it really had been a very nice hallucination he pushed it aside and rubbed his eyes and groaned.

Well, he might as well look for that awful best friend of his—how dare Axel invade his mind like that!—just to make sure that he hadn't been abandoned in a strange townhouse with nothing to eat except stale popcorn kernels. He slipped his feet onto the floor, one at a time, testing the ground to make sure it was firm, it was, and padded out of Axel's room and down the stairs.

Axel was splayed out in a kitchen chair, reading, of all things, the newspaper, and Roxas nearly died from shock (Axel! Reading! In front of people!) until he saw that not only was it the Style section, Axel was holding it upside down and staring very blankly at it. When he heard Roxas' socked feet on his icky yellow bile-tile kitchen floor, he nearly jumped out of his seat, and looked up, then smiled in relief, clutching at his heart dramatically.

"Geez," he said. "Warn a guy before you do that. You'll give me a heart attack."

"Sorry," Roxas muttered, sinking down into the adjacent kitchen chair. "I'm not feeling well."

"Tell me about it," said Axel, yawning. "I woke up at two. Haven't been able to fall asleep since. Feel absolutely dreadful. Can't see straight. That sort of thing." He brandished the newspaper. "Been trying to put myself to sleep again. It's not working."

"That's 'cause that's not the right way to read a newspaper," Roxas explained, reaching over to snatch at it and set it upright. "This should help."

"I'm feeling better already." He yawned again. "But of course I have to see my guest off before I collapse and die. Tell me, what would you like for breakfast? We have orange juice, toast, and some stale Frosted Flakes, and day-old croissants from the bakery across from where I work. But the toast is usually burnt, just as a warning."

Roxas sighed. "I'll take the croissant," he said. "So this is how you stay so thin."

He grinned. "You caught me. I only eat when I'm with you."

"Yeah, and then you eat like, six billion calories. I could feed an African country with one of your cheeseburgers." Roxas pressed a hand to his forehead. Axel grinning made him think of Axel's lips, and goddammit he did not want to think of those at all, because he didn't want to be reminded of that dream. It made him feel awkward. Awkward and it really had been his subconscious, hadn't it?

Goddammit.

Axel got up to fetch him his croissant and said, a bit cautiously, "You don't look so good, Rox. Are you sure you're alright?"

"No," Roxas muttered. "God-_fucking_-dammit, I am not. Axel, can I ask you a really awkward question?"

He thought he saw Axel's hand pause reaching for that croissant, but if it did it was only for a moment, and Axel said, "Sure. You know nothing's off limits with me."

Roxas kneaded his forehead with the palms of his hands. "As an average, straight, teenage male—"

"We're talking about me?" said Axel, setting the croissant on a plate and placing it in front of Roxas before taking his seat again. "Really? We are?"

"Shut up." Roxas sighed again. "Okay, pretend for a minute you're an average, straight, teenage male. Would you say it was normal if you had a dream…"

He trailed off, not quite sure how to finish, but soon found that he didn't need to. Axel grinned again and put his feet up on the table. "Oh, _I_ see where this is going. A dream about a certain sexy male friend of yours with whom you'd been engaging in some very gender-confused cuddling, am I right?"

Roxas glared, then stared. "You…used 'with whom.'"

"Beside the point." Axel waved him off. "As an average, normal, completely honest and rather hormonal teenage male, I'd say that such a thing is simply part of growing up. Especially with all of the gender-confused cuddling. Such a thing tends to get stuck in one's subconscious." He leaned forward on his hand. "Tell me, how much was I wearing?"

"You were wearing everything," Roxas muttered angrily, the blood rushing to his cheeks. "You have _no right_, you bastard. Also, you left off straight."

"Oh, yes. Well, that, too, if it makes you feel better." Axel leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head, looking oddly satisfied. "_All_ my clothes? That's no fun. What base did we get to?"

Groaning, Roxas hit his head against the table. "Jesus shit."

"Heh. Fine then. Eat your croissant. It makes the homo germs go away."

"I'm not hungry anymore," said Roxas, who wasn't. In fact, he rather felt like leaving, so he stood up and made for the living room, where he'd dropped his bag the previous night. He could just grab it and go, and he'd never have to think about this ever again.

He heard Axel's chair scrape against the floor but didn't register that he was obviously being followed until Axel caught his wrist. "Hey," he said. "Rox, wait."

Roxas whirled around to face him, his temper giving out on him. "I am _not_ going to _wait_! Let the hell go of me, Axel. I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to have to sit here and listen to you taunt me on the days when it feels like my life is falling apart, alright? Between this and the stupid play and I, _God_, I don't know what to think about _anything_ anymore—"

"Shut up," said Axel. "Goddammit, Roxas, shut up and listen to me."

He did. Not that he was happy about it. He let his displeasure show all over his face.

Axel ran a hand through his hair. "Look, I'm sorry for being insensitive," he began. Then he paused. Roxas waited, expecting something more. Axel sighed. "Demyx did a lot of research into this sort of thing," he said. "Back when he was trying to figure himself out. One stupid dream doesn't mean you're gay, Roxas. It means you're perfectly normal. And look, we were kind of close, and…I mean, you probably just…" He waved his free hand around.

"I just?"

"You know," said Axel. "Were confused." He shrugged awkwardly. "I guess."

Roxas said nothing for a moment, but he couldn't contain the smirk for very long. It crept onto his face with a vengeance. "I think, personally, it was your childbearing hips that did it. Your hips have no right to confuse perfectly straight men like that."

"My hips don't lie," Axel replied, then, after a moment's hesitation, pulled Roxas forward into a bone-crushing hug.

"Not sorry I yelled," Roxas muttered into Axel's shirt, the same one he'd been wearing last night. "You were being an asshole."

"Yeah, yeah. Always my fault."

"Always is," Roxas agreed. Axel was as warm in life as he'd been in that dream, but Roxas didn't feel any particular urge to kiss him. Not right then. He should be grateful for that, at the least, he supposed. He closed his eyes. "Thanks. For understanding. And not completely flipping out on me when I told you about the dream thing."

"No problemo." A pause. "You know, if it turns out you are gay, I'd still lurve you."

Roxas smiled, and when he said "You're sweet" he was only being half-sarcastic. He pulled away and, his back to Axel, slung his overnight bag over his shoulder. "I really do want to go home, though. My parents are going to wonder where I am if it gets too late."

Axel said nothing. When Roxas turned back, he saw that his friend was standing there looking at him with an odd, almost sad little smile on his face. But it only lasted for a moment, until Axel cleared his throat. "Yeah, you should go."

"'Kay. Call you later?"

"Sure." Axel shooed him away. "Go on, get out of here."

And, as Roxas closed the front door, the click of the knob couldn't completely muffle the curse that escaped Axel's mouth when he thought Roxas was out of earshot.

Roxas heard.

---

**_A/N: _**FYI, the next chapter will be called "Intermission" because it will have next to nothing to do with _Romeo and Juliet_ and most of everything else to do with Homecoming. I know, cheezy high school AU me, right? Well, actually, this is just an excuse to show off the _Five Acts _playlist, which I have so carefully crafted and listen to whenever I write, and includes some songs which might be played at a high school dance.

Alright, so I'm joking, and Homecoming will actually advance the plot. The reason intermission is being inserted here is because not only is it a dramatic pausing point (Will Roxas and Riku ever learn to get along? Will Roxas realize why Axel was cursing? Will everything work out alright?) but because in many productions of _R and J_, intermission is put in after act three, scene i. And this is the equivalent.

Ciao, bellas!

(P.S. Feel free to suggest anything you like for the _Five Acts_ playlist. I am always open to new songs.)


	6. Intermission

**_A/N:_** So this chapter was supposed to be done this weekend! I guess nineteen-and-a-half hours late isn't _too_ bad, right? -sweatdrop- Well, to make up for it, this chapter is, like, one-fifth of a NaNoWriMo. 10,000+ words. I've never written this much in a single chapter before. And this one has a little bit of everything in it!

...Well, no swordfights. That's chapter eight.

...Not that kind either. Pervs. -wink-

Anyway, I was THRILLED with the response to the last chapter. Thanks so much to **LightOne, SuicuneLover, Ookami Aya, Kabbage Kat, auPHE, Meyx, j u li e Tl o v e you, terra hotaru **(times five!)**, kelseywazhere, Butterfly, Vinillii, Bursting-Bubbles, animebecca, foxyaoi123, Knit. Pump, loki lee, Mitsuru Aki, Rose Riku, Aindel S. Druida, SarahXxUnlovedxX, Capiercorn, Rei-chan94, **and **one-regret-103**, and everyone who faved and alerted. You guys made this terrible busy week just a bit more often! Extra thanks to anyone who suggested music. iTunes has been happy with me this week for buying half the store.

Enjoy the chapter!

---

**Intermission: Homecoming**

---

"So," said Sora, on one sunny day when he and Roxas were sitting on their front steps in their puffy fall coats, sipping soda from cans. Pretty soon it would grow too cold to be out here at all, but for now they liked watching the leaves change color. It was something they'd done together when they were little which had become a habit when they'd grown older. After all, doing homework outside was always much preferable to being stuck up in your room, sitting at a boring old desk.

"So?" asked Roxas, who had been reading over his highlighted script, memorizing his lines. "So what?"

"Have you given any thought to Homecoming?"

Roxas grinned. "Well, we're all going as a group, right? I mean, you and Kai and…your friends—" He didn't like specifically mentioning Riku, ever. "—with me and my friends. Like we usually do. Right?"

"Oh, yeah, I know," said Sora, kicking his legs back and forth a bit. "But I was wondering if you were thinking of asking anyone this year."

"Nah." Roxas rolled his eyes and took another sip of soda. "Besides, even if I _were_, who'd want to go with Juliet Boy?" He sighed and shook his head. "I'm perfectly fine just going with our friends, Sor." He paused. "Why do you ask? Do you know something that I don't?"

Sora had on a perfectly innocent face as he said, "Like what?"

"Like…I don't know…" Roxas lowered his voice, even though there was no one else around who would possibly care. "Is someone thinking of asking _me_, Sora?"

"Oh." Sora shrugged. "Not that I know. Sorry."

He laughed. "Way to get my hopes up, Sor."

"Sorry!" Sora said again, looking to the side. "But I just thought, because you haven't really gone with anyone, ever, in our entire high school career, that maybe this year you'd want to ask someone. I mean, you're running out of chances."

Sighing, Roxas set his script aside and set his elbow on his knee, leaning his head on his palm. "Okay, you are _definitely_ thinking of someone in particular." He grinned. "Stop being so evasive and tell me. Who should I ask to Homecoming?"

"Well," Sora began awkwardly, shuffling his feet against the concrete. "There's that guy who's always hitting on you during rehearsal. I thought—"

Roxas nearly fell off the steps. "What, you mean _Axel_?"

"Never mind!" Sora exclaimed. "Forget I said anything!"

"So_ra_." This was unexpected. This was…much less than expected. Holy cow. What the _hell_? Roxas didn't have enough exclamations or expletives in his vocabulary to even begin to summarize how he felt about this. "_Why_?"

Sora drew a deep breath and straightened, preparing to defend himself. "Well, I mean, he _is_ always hitting on you, and he hits on Kairi, too, but he's only doing that to annoy her, and he has no reason to want to annoy you. And you don't really seem to mind when he does, I mean, you two sort of have this repartee going and I thought maybe it was one of those repressed attraction things and—"

"Sora," Roxas said, very patiently. "Axel is _male_."

Sora looked surprised. "You don't…like guys?"

"Um." Well, occasional homoerotic dreams to the contrary… "No. Did I ever say I liked guys?"

"You didn't." Sora was embarrassed, now, and he was sort of grinning up at Roxas sheepishly. "I just sort of always thought that you did." He paused. "I mean, I don't have any problem with it, you know. Riku came out to me as bi a long time ago."

"I'm sure he _did_," Roxas muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Roxas rubbed at his forehead. He doubted that Riku was actually bi. Riku was probably just spinning the truth to make it all a little easier for Sora to accept. Regardless, that was not the issue at hand here. "So you just _assumed_ that I was gay? I'm your _brother_, Sora. Don't you think I'd tell you something like that?"

"Not really, actually. I always thought it was the sort of thing you'd keep to yourself, because you were ashamed or something, and that's why you hadn't gone out with anyone for, like, our entire high school career." He nodded and added, "But you don't have to be ashamed. I think you can date whoever you want. I'd still be happy if you were happy."

"While I appreciate that rousing endorsement," said Roxas, "It all kind of falls apart at the fact that I am _not gay_." He groaned. "Really, first Kai, then you. What is it with this?"

Sora shrugged. "You've just never seemed all that interested in girls, you know? I mean, it's not like you're utterly _flaming_, you're more like…that sort of understated type of gay. If you _were_ gay," he finished dutifully. "That is."

Roxas sighed. "Well, now that we've got that cleared up, is there anyone who I should ask to Homecoming who's actually, you know, female?"

"Oh, no." Sora smiled. "Glad we cleared that up."

"Yeah," Roxas said dismally. "Glad we did."

---

"Your brother said _what_?" Axel asked, nearly choking on his own laughter.

"I _know_," Roxas moaned, almost instantly regretting the decision to tell him. "It's _terrible_."

"Terrible for you, maybe," said Axel, slinging an arm around Roxas' shoulder. "Although, in light of certain dreams one of us has been having…and I am _not_ naming any names…"

"I thought we'd agreed never to talk about that again," Roxas said miserably, so concentrated on wallowing that he didn't even think of pushing off Axel's arm. "Didn't we agree to that, Axel? Didn't we?"

"I think the way it went was you threatened to do some very creative things with plastic cutlery if I didn't conveniently forget about it." He grinned impishly. "Anyway, you're out of luck. I already have a Homecoming date."

Roxas blinked. "Really? Who?"

"Larxene," he said, his voice containing a bit less than the expected degree of enthusiasm. "From my drama class. You've seen her before, right?"

"That one time…" He only vaguely remembered her, but he recalled that at the time she'd seemed like a very scary person. Kinda hot, in that curvy bottle-blonde punk-rock way, but definitely scary.

"He's only going with her because she said she'd castrate him if he didn't," said Demyx, who was just then walking up the path towards their usual meeting spot. It had become a habit for Roxas to meet the two of them like this after rehearsal, chat for a few minutes, and head home. Not, of course, that any of his other friends knew about it.

"And she would have, too," Axel added, sounding a bit ill. "And I like all of my manly bits where they are, thanks." He laughed it off. "But she's not bad looking, so I'm not complaining."

"How very cavalier of you," said Roxas, thinking that Larxene was, indeed, a very scary person, and that he'd have to avoid both her and Axel on Homecoming night.

"Yes, well." Axel shrugged. "I like blondes."

"And she was pretty insistent," Demyx said, sounding amused by the whole situation. "But that's because you're the hottest thing in our drama class. Aside from—"

"Xigbar," Axel and Roxas finished in unison.

"Yeah," said Demyx softly. "That."

Axel patted him on the shoulder with his free hand. "Hey, that's a pretty high complement, coming from you. Thanks, man." He paused. "So have you asked him yet, or what?"

"Shut _up_," Demyx replied, turning a rather noticeable shade of pink. "He can't go to Homecoming with a student. I mean, even if he wanted to." He looked at the ground. "He is chaperoning, though. I asked about that."

"I can just imagine it." Axel pitched his voice about an octave higher and keened, "Oh, Xiggy, am I going to see you at Homecoming? Oh, really?" He giggled. It was highly disturbing to all present. "How about that?"

"I hear Mr. Zexion's chaperoning, too, Dem," Roxas cut in, just to keep Axel from continuing. "Is this going to be the final epic battle for your love and affection?"

"I can hear it now. 'No, you one-eyed fiend!'" Axel mocked. "'Demyx is mine!' And then he would grab the heaviest encyclopedia in his collection, and Xigbar would get that cutlass that we all know he's hiding in his closet, and they'd duel it out on the gym floor." He whistled. "Man, that would be the best Homecoming _ever_."

"It would be pretty awesome," Roxas agreed, and Demyx, who had sworn up and down a thousand times that he was over Mr. Zexion, seemed pleased, if embarrassed, at the thought of two of his teachers fighting over him.

"Speaking of dates," he said abruptly, to change the subject. "Roxas, are you going to Homecoming with anyone?"

"Uh." Roxas didn't want to have to recount the entire episode with Sora again, so he simply said, "No, just with a group of friends."

Demyx nodded. "Sure, sure, I get it. And it's alright that Axel's going with Larxene, right?"

The tone of his voice made Roxas a bit wary, and he said slowly, cautiously, "Its fine. Why wouldn't it be?"

Axel was giving Demyx an odd look, too. "We've already talked about it," he said coldly. "He's fine."

"Oh, okay." Demyx shrugged. "Just making sure you're cool with it and everything, Rox. You are?"

Roxas swallowed. If he'd said that he didn't have any idea what this was about, he would have been lying. There was a very small part of him which had started paying much closer attention to certain aspects of what the people around him were doing, ever since Sora—no, ever since that dream. It was the part of him that kept looking for excuses as to why he'd had it in the first place, and that part took note of Axel's arm around him and Demyx's pointed questions with more than casual interest.

And, in truth, that tiny, infinitesimal part of him would prefer that Axel go to some sort of anti-Homecoming party with friends of his and get completely smashed, as was his habit, than actually go to actual Homecoming with an actual girl. But examining that thought too closely would open an entirely different can of worms, one that was too close to crisis to be dealt with right then. After the play—maybe—if ever.

So Roxas just said, "Yeah, I'm okay with it," and left it at that.

But he said it with that muttered curse of Axel's echoing in his ear.

---

Roxas hadn't really been bullied into shopping for Homecoming dresses, but spending an entire Saturday afternoon trapped in a mall with three teenage girls certainly wasn't his idea of fun.

It wasn't supposed to end up like this. The entire group had planned on going _together_, with the guys peeling off to go to the local GameStop or something while the girls hung around Macy's. But Hayner's ice hockey team was just starting weekend practices, and Pence's mom scheduled him a doctor's appointment, and Riku—curse him—was visiting a college on Sunday, so Saturday was the only day he could help Sora with Sora's physics lab, due that Monday. Somehow, all of the guys had failed to inform their female counterparts of these unfortunate facts before Friday, and by the time Roxas realized that he was the only one going to the mall on Saturday with a Y chromosome, it was, as Olette had insisted, "too late to back out."

"And besides," she'd added, "It isn't as if you have anything better to be do."

While this was true, he easily could have invented something. For some reason, however, the girls seemed to be desperate for a boy's opinion on their dresses. And, really, it wasn't as if Roxas could tell tulle from ribbon, or explain why a halter top was more or less flattering than spaghetti straps, or even bring himself to care about what girls wore to dances. This whole situation would have been much more bearable if girls realized that they were just dressing up for the benefit of other girls, and left him out of it.

Besides, Roxas couldn't escape the mortifying thought that the girls were turning him into everyone's token gay best friend. Despite, you know, not actually being gay.

It was almost as annoying as the song that the girls were blasting out of the speakers of Kairi's car. In fact, it lost by a very slim margin.

"_I think you're fine_," sang Kairi and Olette from the front seats. "_You really blow my mind_."

"There has got to be some kind of law against this," Roxas groaned, covering his face with his hand. "Something to prevent this sort of thing from happening to unsuspecting guys like me."

"Kai's had her license for six months," Naminé replied dutifully. "She can drive whomever she wants and have the radio on as loud as she wants."

"I know, but—"

"_Hey Ju-li-et_," sang the girls. "_Hey Juliet_!"

He sighed miserably. Naminé gave him a sympathetic smile and patted his arm reassuringly. "Be strong. We just have two more minutes until we get to the mall, and then they can't blast anymore 90's music at you."

Olette leaned back to look at them, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "We didn't pick it out on purpose, for the record. Kairi's iPod's on shuffle, and 'Hey Juliet' just popped up. And it's catchy."

"But you didn't _change_ the song," Roxas pointed out. "Therefore only furthering the, um, deep profound darkness of my despair and humiliation. Or something."

Kairi giggled. "Roxas, as your director, I command you to stop thinking about the play for a day and start enjoying yourself. Also, leave the angsting to Riku. He's much better at it."

Roxas nodded, then leaned his head against the cold, unforgiving window and braced himself for an afternoon of pain and horror.

The gaggle of teenagers arrived at the mall without further incident, and, despite Roxas' best attempts to excuse himself and run for the nearest Apple store to gawk at iPhones he would be able to afford when he was 25, he was forcibly dragged into a department store to supervise the shopping. He rooted himself in a little chair in the corner of the junior's department by the dressing rooms, planted his earbuds in his ear, and planned to grunt appreciatively at whatever the girls showed him.

Naminé was the first to approach, and he considered that a relief. She had some sort of light blue satiny thing in her hands. "Should I try it on?" she asked him. "It's a little bigger than what I'd usually wear, but…"

"Well," Roxas said flatly, "Do you like it?"

"Yes, but…" She sighed. "I'd planned on making my own dress this year. This feels like such a copout."

Roxas removed one earbud and leaned forward. "You did? I didn't even know that. What happened?"

Naminé shrugged. "I just got too busy, with the play and my homework and everything. So maybe next year I'll be able to pull it off." She looked down at the dress in her hand. "I'll go try this on, I guess. I'll be right back."

"Sure, alright, take your time," said Roxas, ever the supportive older brother.

Naminé nodded and stepped into the dressing room. He had just moved to put his earbud back into his ear when he heard her say, "Oh, hi! I didn't expect to see you here!"

Oh, no. Someone they knew. What should he do? Should he run away to the men's section? Should he ignore them? Should he pretend to have gotten lost among all of the racks of shiny dresses? Momentary blindness? Amnesia? If the wrong person saw him dress shopping with three girls, he would never live it down. The first thing to do, then, was to see who it was, and then bolt. He stood from his chair, cautiously took those few, short steps the door of the dressing room, and peeked around the doorframe.

Naminé was talking with a tall girl with long brown hair pulled back in a braid, and Roxas breathed a sigh of relief. Just Aerith, then. The senior girl, costumes chief of the play, wouldn't care that he was here. She instinctively understood things like that.

He stepped into view and offered her a casual wave. "Hey, Aerith."

She smiled at him. They'd only met a couple of times, once, of course, when she had to take his measurements for the play, and the sheer awkwardness of having some girl wrap a measuring tape around his hips—or, for Aerith's part, having to very professionally wrap a measuring tape around some guy's hips—had provided them with a sort of instant camaraderie. "Hi, Roxas," she said. "Are you here with your sister? That's sweet."

Naminé coughed. "Kairi and Olette are here, too. All of the other boys found other things to do."

"I see." Aerith's smile gained a certain degree of pity. "You poor thing."

Roxas shrugged it off, not wanting to appear like an ungrateful, spoiled teenage boy. "It's alright. They've mostly left me alone. And I haven't been mistaken for anyone's gay best friend yet today, so I'm surviving."

"Does that happen a lot?" Aerith asked, suppressing a laugh.

"More than you'd think," Roxas grumbled, wrapping his earbuds around his iPod and depositing it in his pocket. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"He's still a little uncomfortable with this whole Juliet thing," Kairi said, coming up behind them with Olette in tow and an armful of dresses. "But we'll shake him out of it, right, Aerith?"

"Oh, of course," Aerith replied, with such sincerity that Roxas instantly feared yet again for his dignity. "Kairi said she's going to let me style your hair."

"Joy," Roxas said. "I mean, forgive me if I'm lacking enthusiasm, but…"

Aerith did giggle this time. "No, no, that's fine." She turned to Naminé. "Just that one for you?"

"Yes," said Naminé, indicating the dress and accepting the blue card numbered "1" which Aerith handed her. With a "thank you," she disappeared into the nearest empty dressing room.

Roxas blinked. "You work here?"

"Just on weekends. I'm saving for college," Aerith explained, twirling a loose strand of hair around her finger. Roxas noticed for the first time that she was wore a long, pink bow in her hair. "I want to at least make a dent in some of the payments myself. Schools are so expensive nowadays."

Kairi nodded. "I know. My parents are freaking out already. Sometimes I think your boyfriend did the smart thing, going into the military."

"How is he?" Olette chimed in.

"Zack's doing well," she replied, pulling, almost absentmindedly, on one of the trailing ends of the bow. "I miss him, but he calls a lot. Oh!" She grinned. "He's become good friends with your cousin, Roxas."

Roxas goggled. "Cloud? Zack knows _Cloud_?"

"It's a small world after all," Kairi mused.

Aerith laughed. "Yeah. From what Zack says, they're pretty close now. And he also told me they might both be home in time to see you guys in the play."

Instantly, Roxas had mixed feelings. As much as he knew he wouldn't be able to prevent people from coming to the show, and as much as he wanted to show people that yes, he could act, Cloud was sort of a different story. He was that cousin who had always been older and better-looking and cooler, and Roxas wasn't sure he wanted _that_ cousin watching him flounce around in a dress, sighing over another guy. "How much have you, um, told them about this play?"

Aerith winked.

"Um," said Roxas, who had no idea what that was supposed to mean. "Good, then."

Naminé chose that moment to emerge from her room, carrying the dress she'd come in with. "It was too big," she told Aerith regretfully. "Which is a shame, because I really liked the color."

Aerith inspected the tag. "I can check to see if we have it in a smaller size," she offered. "I don't think we do, but I'll take a look for you."

"Wait a sec." Kairi practically lunged forward and took the dress from Naminé, holding it up, studying it contemplatively from all angles. "This color…do you know who would look absolutely stunning in this?"

Beat. Then everyone turned to look at Roxas.

"Well," he said. "I don't know. Why are you asking me?"

They kept looking, and looking. And he got it.

"Oh, _no_."

"Oh, _yes_," said Kairi, seizing his wrist before he could flee. "Aerith, I know we're not supposed to bring guys into the dressing room, but, this is a special occasion, right? You know we're not going to be doing any scandalous things with him, right? I mean, he's not having any orgies with his little _sister_ around."

"Well…" Aerith bit her lip. "It is against company policy, but since it's for the play…"

"Thank you!" Kairi squealed, dragging Roxas down the hall, towards the handicap dressing room, the only one big enough to comfortably accommodate all of them. Roxas, for his part, was too shocked to protest. "Thank you thank you!

"Just make sure he's really quiet!" Aerith called after them, giggling despite herself. "And that no one sees him! I like this job!"

And then the door to the dressing room closed, and Roxas was trapped with three girls and a Homecoming dress.

He wasn't quite sure how to respond to this predicament. After all, he was pretty sizably outnumbered, and he knew that Olette and Kairi both had sharp nails. So he folded his arms and said, "Look, as much as I know you'd love to get an eyeful, I'm not stripping down in front of the three of you."

"We'll close our eyes," said Kairi firmly. Naminé nodded her agreement.

Roxas shook his head. "Sora would not approve."

"Sora isn't _here_," Kairi said.

"You're going to have to get used to people seeing you in dresses anyway," Olette pointed out. "Hopefully, you're going to have an audience watching you."

Roxas looked at them. Then he looked at the dress. Then, deciding that there were worse things he could do, and that he would come up with them later, he said, "I might as well get it over with now, then."

Kairi thrust the dress at him and turned to face the wall. "Alright. Tell us when you're decent."

He blinked at the incomprehensible pile of fabric in his hand, wondering what exactly he was supposed to do with it. It wasn't as if he'd ever worn a dress before. Guys had it easy; they could throw on a sports jacket and nice pants and go just about anywhere. Whatever this was, it looked complicated. He sighed, hung it up, and took off his shirt, wondering if Kairi would let him get away with trying it on over his jeans. Probably not.

When he had kicked off his shoes and stripped down to socks and underwear, he turned once more to see if the girls were looking—they weren't—then picked up the dress and looked at it again, still unsure of what exactly to do with it. He finally chose to slip the whole thing on over his head, which worked, except the dress hung much lower than it was supposed to, leaving half of his chest exposed. "Uh," he said. "I don't think this is how it's supposed to fit."

Turning around, Olette laughed sweetly, as if amused at Roxas' plight, or his ignorance. "It's a halter, silly," she said, undoing the tie at the back of his neck and pulling up the fabric straps, retying when she was done. "There. It's much better now. What do you think, Kai?"

Kairi paced a circle around him. "It looks nice," she decided. "I was worried about his shoulders—I was afraid they'd look too broad—but they don't."

"Thanks?" said Roxas.

"And your waist is so tiny…I'm almost jealous."

"This is not the attention I'd usually prefer to be receiving from my female friends," Roxas remarked snidely. "Besides, isn't this sort of not period costume?"

"We can't do period costume, exactly," Olette, resident costumes representative, explained. "We don't already own them, and our budget's not big enough to do all new stuff. So we're going with sort of an ambiguous time period." She looked him up and down as well. "This'll do nicely, I think. We could give you a shawl or something. I'll talk to Aerith about it, but I think it will work. Was it on sale, Nam?"

Naminé nodded, then, after a moment, said, "It really does look good on you, Roxas. I'm sorry."

"That's alright." He strained to smile. "I know you wanted to buy it. So, are we done here?"

"Well, you need to get out of here so Olette and I can try on our clothes," said Kairi. "Then we'll be done with dresses, I promise. And then we can move on to shoes!"

Roxas groaned.

---

The week before Homecoming passed rather uneventfully. The school workload began to pick up a bit, and the last week of 4:30 rehearsals passed. The next week would mark the start of the second month of rehearsal, and five weeks until the show, and, therefore, an extension in rehearsal length, the first of a couple. Roxas had a Spanish test, but nothing else exciting, and it was all he could do to will the week forward into Friday.

Their Homecoming was late this year, the first week of November, and when the actual football game rolled around, no one bothered to go. Ansem High's football team was notoriously awful, and the Homecoming spirit was not well maintained after a loss. So it was a bit surprising to everyone when they actually won—the first time in thirteen years, actually. Roxas wasn't big on high school football, so he didn't care too terribly much either way, but the unexpected victory got people excited and ready to party.

The group met at Sora and Roxas' house at six. Naminé had actually split off to go with some sophomore friends of hers, and the rest of them went off to eat at a sushi place before the dance, Sora, Kairi, and Riku in Riku's car (it was alright to leave Sora with Riku when Kairi was present) and Roxas, Pence, Hayner and Olette in Hayner's car. When they arrived, Roxas somehow ended up sitting on the side of the booth across from his main group of friends, sandwiched in between Riku and the wall. This arrangement was not optimal, and not just because Riku ended up stealing a piece of Roxas' shrimp tempura without asking.

Roxas didn't like Riku. He couldn't recall having ever really liked Riku. True, he'd started actually hating him when the other boy hit puberty and so obviously wanted to screw Sora senseless—and Roxas had already mentally established a "no sex before college" rule for Sora—but even before then he'd always found Riku sort of pushy and obnoxious. Probably because Riku had always insisted that he'd beat Roxas in those pretend swordfights he, Sora, and Roxas used to have, even when Roxas had so clearly won.

But he endured by focusing on other things, like diverting Riku's attention from Sora—a monumental task—by pretending to have civilized conversation with him about the show, and complementing Olette on her dress. She'd gone with something blue-green, and, as Roxas had learned, spaghetti strapped, while Kairi had opted for pink and strapless. Aside from that, Roxas couldn't describe much about the dresses, except that they were glittery in some places and very flattering. He'd only really intimately become acquainted with halter tops. Luckily, that hadn't gotten out in present company, or he'd never hear the end of it from Hayner.

Hayner couldn't take his eyes off of Olette, for that matter, and Roxas found himself wondering whether the two of them would end up getting back together. That might be nice, for them, of course, but Roxas liked his dances relatively free of drama. After a bad experience in middle school when he'd told a girl he didn't want to dance and she'd ended up crying her little eyes out in the bathroom, he'd learned that no drama was good drama.

After dinner, they headed back to the school. The gym had been transformed on the model of something vaguely water-themed, but aside from the blue everywhere (same color as that dress, Roxas thought ruefully) nothing made as much of an impression as the strobe lights in the corners which flashes rather obnoxiously or the thumping bass from the speakers. Still, everyone managed to start dancing and enjoy themselves almost immediately.

"Dude!" Hayner yelled, something like an hour or so after they'd settled into the frantic rhythm of all high school dances. "This is the best Homecoming ever!"

Roxas looked around him. There was so much positive energy everywhere, people just coming off from the game and all, that he couldn't help but see where Hayner was coming from. And if he ignored all of the annoying grinding couples, and the sickening thought that someone would probably report finding used condoms on the floor the next day, then it was, in fact, a pretty good dance. But any dance where there were people to hang out with was a good dance, in Roxas' professional dance-going opinion.

"It's okay," he yelled back, afraid he'd start to get a headache if he kept this up. "Hey, I'm gonna get some water. Be back soon."

Hayner gave him a thumbs up, and Roxas wove his way through the crowd to get to the other side of the auditorium. He considered climbing on top of a table to get a better view of the whole place, but caught a flash of red hair quite well from where he was—Axel was sort of really tall like that—and ran off to locate its source.

He spotted Demyx first, sporting a buttoned-down shirt and looking oddly cleaned up, lounging in a chair by the side of the room. Roxas sat down next to him. "All danced out already?"

"Oh, no way," said Demyx, grinning. "Just taking a break. I've still got a _lot_ of dancing left to do." He nodded. "Hey, so it's okay for you to be seen in public with me now, huh?"

Roxas shrugged. "Well, we're acquaintances, right? I know you from the show and all. So it's fine."

"Ah," Demyx replied knowingly. "I see."

They sat there in silence for a minute. Roxas got a bit distracted by Demyx nodding his head in time to the music that he'd forgotten why he came over at all. Then, he remembered. "Hey," he began. "Have you seen—"

"Axel. Of course." Demyx jerked his thumb at the crowd of dancers. "He's over there with Larx."

Roxas looked. Then he stared. He could barely help it. "Wow," he said. "Um, Larxene…I didn't know it was possible to stay upright at that angle."

Demyx laughed. "You learn new things every day, huh?" He reached over to ruffle Roxas' hair. "Don't worry, that's all her. Axel's just playing along."

"What?"

"Well, you know, people'd just sort of expect that sort of thing from him. That sort of dancing…and then driving off somewhere early with Larxene and hooking up with her in the back of his car—"

"He won't," said Roxas, feeling a little ill at the prospect. He was starting to cultivate a great dislike of Larxene indeed. "Will he? I thought he didn't like her."

"He won't," Demyx agreed. "He doesn't like her. He'll make up an excuse and drop her off at home." He patted Roxas on the arm. "You should know this, man. You two are all about keeping up appearances, right?"

Roxas blinked. "I…_think_ so. What do you mean?"

Shrugging, Demyx said, "You know, this whole secrecy thing, not getting involved with each other's friends. I personally find it a little strange, but that's just me. You two can do whatever you want as long as it makes you happy." He grinned again, shaking a strand of hair out of his eyes. "That said, you're pretty tolerant. I were you, I'd go over there and punch Larxene out for dancing all up on him like that."

"Axel can take care of himself."

"Yeah," Demyx said softly. "I guess he can."

They sat in silence for a minute or two, Demyx watching all of the other people dance, and Roxas trying to puzzle of what Demyx was _actually_ telling him without coming to a conclusion which would melt his brain. He might have sat there for the entire rest of the dance trying to figure it out had he not heard Demyx make an odd, quiet little noise. He glanced up and immediately saw the problem.

"Is that _Xigbar_?" he asked, goggling. "He's—he's cleaned up. I thought he only had t-shirts in his wardrobe."

"His hair," said Demyx, in a very strained voice. "It's down. It—it—oh _God_."

"If you go all 'It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my _life_' on me, I may have to strangle you," Roxas said. "Although, admittedly, it does look very good like that."

Demyx hugged Roxas' shoulders. "We'll get you out of that closet yet, young man."

"I…what?"

"Is he talking to _Zexy_?" Demyx continued, almost in one breath, as if he hadn't heard Roxas at all. "He is! I can't decide if this is the best or the worst moment of my entire life. What if they're talking about me?"

Xigbar was, indeed, talking to Mr. Zexion, who was sitting in a corner of the room with a heavy, boring book on his lap, stubbornly refusing to be a social creature. Xigbar, for his part, appeared to be doing what he could to change that by being his friendly, laid-back, Xigbar self, inquiring as to the nature of the heavy, boring book, etc. Roxas didn't really feel like pointing out that they were co-workers, they probably talked _all the time_, and probably rarely about Demyx, so he said instead, "You should ask him to dance."

"Which one?"

"Either. Both! Go for it."

Demyx shook his head. "You really have been hanging around Axel too much. That sounds just like something he'd say. Besides, I don't want to get them _fired_."

"Oh," said Roxas. "Of course not."

"And, I'm over Zexy."

"So you've said."

Demyx thought for a minute, tapping his fingers on his knee. "That would be fun, though. But I'm a bit of a coward, I'll admit it. I wouldn't have the guts for it." He paused. "But it would be fun…"

And before Roxas could argue for or against asking both teachers to dance, the music changed to something techno, and Demyx leapt up from his chair. "I've been waiting for that. Sorry, Rox. Talk to you later." And he ran off into the crowd, withdrawing something from his pocket and bending it until it snapped.

Roxas sighed, and realized after a quick glance around that he'd lost sight of both Axel and Demyx, and proceeded back to his primary group of friends, who had managed to get on the inside of a circle which was rapidly forming around a group of boys with glowsticks.

Eventually, Roxas found his way to Olette and Pence, who were watching the ravers with undisguised admiration. Roxas could empathize. He'd gotten Hayner to teach him a bit of string raving and found it to be harder than it looked. He spotted Hayner in the circle, and, for that matter, Demyx, who had gotten his glowsticks to work and was raving like a pro. Then he saw Axel's grin flash by, rainbow in the multicolored lights, and smiled in response.

Raving was always incredibly fun to watch, with all of the patterns done by these people who could make it look so _easy_. It gained an extra dimension when Demyx pushed his glowsticks into Roxas' hand and dove into the middle of the circle to break-dance for a bit. He was good at it, too, managing to twist his arms and legs in a way Roxas hadn't thought possible. Through the whistles and cheers, Roxas saw a few of the teachers watching. Xigbar had gotten Zexion to come over and was commenting animatedly on the action. Dem would be pleased.

The song ended too soon in Roxas' opinion, and a slower one took its place, and people started to either pair off or drift away from the floor. Hayner, wiping off a little sweat, offered his hand to Olette, who giggled and took it, and they began to dance in that swaying, very high school way. A tall, pretty senior girl with light brown hair asked Riku to dance, and he accepted without the slightest hesitation. Roxas gave him credit where credit was due: he was, at times, a fine actor.

Roxas and Pence wandered off to get some water, but when they came back the same song was still playing. No relief for a poor, single boy. With the slightest jolt Roxas noticed Larxene draped all over Axel, but at least they weren't making out. Neither, Roxas noticed, were Sora and Kairi, who were just sort of dancing cutely while having some private, muted conversation. Roxas had to hand it to Sora—he really did do cute very well, and Roxas, as his brother, was perfectly happy with that.

Riku was staring at them while that senior girl who'd asked him to dance happened to have her head on his shoulder. He never stared when Kairi was looking, which showed the tiniest degree of class. But his eyes had so much undisguised _want_ in them that Roxas was utterly disgusted, and felt a bit sicker than he had when he noticed Axel dancing with Larxene. Although he shouldn't have been emotionally invested in that at all, really. And it bothered him.

"Being single kind of sucks, yeah?" asked Pence.

"You said it," Roxas replied, but he couldn't put his heart in it.

Sora had, just then, noticed Riku looking at him, and mouthed "What's wrong?" over Kairi's shoulder. Riku shook his head and gave Sora the tiniest smile as if to say that no, nothing was wrong, surely Sora was mistaken. But the instant Sora glanced the other direction the eyes were back, and, God, it made Roxas so _sick _to watch Riku lie to Sora's face and maybe if he were just honest about it Roxas might like him a little better. But he wasn't, and he probably wouldn't ever be.

"Hey," said Pence, elbowing Roxas. "Over there."

Roxas glanced over and saw Hayner and Olette and what definitely qualified as making out. In fact, there was some serious make-outage going on. He sighed, and felt a different pang in his stomach this time, one that might have been identifiable is…longing? Jealousy? No, of course not. He didn't want that kind of saliva-exchange relationship. At all. With anyone. Was that not normal?

"They're going to put us through all of that again," he said flatly. "Aren't they?"

Pence gave him a surprised look. "You don't sound happy about it."

He shrugged. "I just…I don't know. I want this song to end."

"It's almost over," Pence said reassuringly. "Cheer up. Enjoy yourself. It's what we're here for."

Roxas nodded, drawing a deep breath. He really…he didn't feel well all of a sudden. It was the music, probably. And the lights, too. And all of the people were making the room unbearably hot and humid. He just wanted out of the auditorium, really. When he thought about it more closely, he didn't know if he wanted to be here at all anymore.

But the song changed, and some of the couples broke apart, and everyone started dancing with everyone else again as something else with a moving beat came on. It was more in the electronic vein, and Roxas tried to hear the words, as if that would help anything at all. He felt like he was being jostled around in the crowd against his will, and he wondered where Axel and Larxene went.

Hayner and Olette had come back with identical smiles, and they, Roxas, and Pence merged back in with Sora, Kairi, and Riku. Riku's dance partner had disappeared off somewhere, never to return, and Roxas wondered if he'd only danced with her at all because her hair had been almost the same color as Sora's. He was shooting Sora fleeting, desperate looks now, camouflaged by a smile, and Sora didn't notice, or only grinned in return. The beat pounded on into Roxas' skull.

Hayner had his hands on Olette's waist, and he whispered something into her ear. She laughed. Riku looked at Sora again, but he had his arms around Kairi now and didn't see. He didn't see at all. None of them did. None…none of them did.

"I'm going outside," he said to no one in particular, and he tried to push his way out of the crowd by the room was spinning. After a few seconds he managed to remember which way was up and which ways weren't and started for the door, unsure of whether or not he'd collapse before he got there. The side door was much closer, and it would take him directly out of the building. He closed his eyes and breathed in through his nose and walked.

Someone called his name. He kept going, feeling the blood pounding to the beat in every part of his body, feeling oddly feverish even though he knew he wasn't sick. He found the metal bar on the door and pushed, stumbling out into the cold night air.

The contrast was overwhelming, all of the empty space and the dry, bitter cold that seeped in through Roxas' skin. He could still hear the music through the thin walls of the school building but didn't know if he could spare the energy to focus on it anymore. And the grass looked much more comfortable than his feet. Maybe it would help if he just—

"Woah," said a voice, and he felt anonymous hands grab onto his jacket, preventing his fall. "Hey, Rox. Watch where you're going."

Roxas blinked up at the person who'd caught him, and was surprised to see a thin face, wild red hair, green eyes, high cheekbones. Axel was looking down at him with obvious concern, and as he looked back at Axel through hazy eyes he noticed that Axel had also cleaned himself up, and that he'd pulled back his hair—something he swore he'd never do ever because it would make him look like his hick cousin Reno in Texas.

Axel had a firm hold on Roxas' shoulders now and leaned down to look into his face, shaking him a bit. "Are you alright? You're really pale."

Roxas began to nod, then shook his head, so violently that he almost stumbled again, and Axel dug his fingers into Roxas' shoulders and pulled him forward so he'd have something to lean against. Roxas dug his nails into the fabric of Axel's jacket for support. He wasn't sure if he trusted his eyes anymore, so he closed them. "I don't know," he said, but it came out more like a moan. "I don't know what's going on in my head."

"Shh," said Axel, rubbing Roxas' back. Roxas hadn't realized he'd been breathing so heavily until he felt his chest heaving. He pressed his face into Axel's shirt. Axel smelled mostly clean, for once, but the faint odor of smoke which always seemed to follow him was woven into the shirt itself, and it only made Roxas feel more nauseous. He had no idea what had caused him to feel like this in the first place, though, and he hated it, and he couldn't stand up on his own, and he hated that, too.

But he wanted to lean on Axel, and Axel let him, wrapping his arms around Roxas and holding him until they swayed together in a mockery of those couples inside at the dance, except he and Axel swayed for balance. Roxas thought of Hayner and Olette, and Sora and Kairi—and Riku, that jerk—Demyx's face flashed by, too, staring at Xigbar from across the room with that silly little wistful smile of his, and how Demyx's eyes and Riku's eyes had had something in common, and Axel'd never had that sort of thing in his eyes when he'd looked at Larxene, really. He found himself wondering if Axel had ever had that sort of thing in his eyes when he looked at someone else, and felt the answer was buried somewhere really, really nearby but that he didn't really want to know. Unless he did.

"I think," he began. "I think I might—" But he had no idea how he was going to end the sentence, whether it was with "I think I might collapse" or "I think I might be going insane" or half a dozen other things that he might do or might be. He really felt like there were a ton of neurons firing every which way in his brain and that they kept missing each other over and over and over again, and from all of those chemical misfirings one thought stood out in his mind, and it was the only one he could say out loud.

"I want to go home," he managed. "I think I want to go home."

"Alright," Axel whispered. "I'll take you home."

"But…Larxene—"

He felt Axel shrug. "She'll live." And Axel shifted his grip so that he had an arm firmly around Roxas' waist to better help him walk to the car. Roxas leaned back on Axel's arm and he felt Axel—stupid Axel—kiss the top of his head. "Let's go home."

Roxas nodded dumbly, still trying to figure out why, on a night when everything was supposed to come together, it all felt like it was falling apart.

---

When he woke up the next morning, his head was clearer, and the dizziness had faded to a throbbing at his temples which any other morning would have been unwelcome. He sighed contentedly and buried his face in his covers, warm and snug. The motion alerted someone else, and Roxas felt an arm tighten around his waist.

"What are you doing here?" he said sleepily.

"You let me in," Axel murmured into his ear, his voice heavy with fatigue. "Through the window. Remember?"

"No," said Roxas, who didn't. "You climbed in through my window?"

Axel shifted a little, one of his knees brushing against the back of Roxas' leg. "You left it open. I was worried about you. Didn't want you to be alone."

"That was nice." Roxas squeezed his eyes shut again for a moment and stretched out his legs, rolling his head from side to side experimentally to make sure everything was in proper working order. "I don't know what was going on with me yesterday. I'm sorry."

Sighing, Axel said, "Don't apologize. Everyone has those days."

"Yeah…" He sighed. "I wish I knew what happened. I think it was just…"

"It's alright." Axel yawned and, hopefully unintentionally, nuzzled a little into Roxas' neck. Roxas didn't mind. "Don't wake up yet. I was having a very nice dream."

Roxas smiled. "Okay. Just don't move. You're warm." He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and, curling around Axel's arm asked, "What kind of dream, exactly?"

"You know, the—"

Somewhere very far away, the door banged open. "Hey, Roxas, Kai called and—" Sora's voice cut off abruptly, and Roxas looked up wearily at his brother, whose eyes had gone from normal to plate-sized in two seconds flat. "Oh, man," he squeaked. "Sorry. I just—sorry. I'll go."

"You don't have to," Roxas said, still too tired to be properly embarrassed or anything. He sat up, rubbing at his head. "It isn't what it looks like."

"It doesn't look like anything," Axel said casually. "We've both got clothes on." He sat up, too, quite content to keep that arm around Roxas' waist, as Roxas looked down and saw that Axel was still wearing his Homecoming clothes, now slightly wrinkled, and that he had changed into boxers and a t-shirt. He hadn't remembered that, either. "Hi, Sora."

"Please be quiet," Roxas added. "Mom and Dad would flip if they walked in and found some random guy in my room. I don't know _what_ they'd think."

Sora didn't take a step closer. "Yeah, I mean, yeah I get that, but…" He drew in a deep breath, unsure of how to proceed. "When you texted Hayner that you were heading home early, and that you were tired, I mean—you could have at least told me the truth, Roxas!"

"When did I not tell you the truth?"

"You…" Sora gave him an incredulous look. "Just last week you said you weren't gay!"

"I'm _not_ gay."

"Of course you're not. I mean, I must be totally wrong here. Roxas, what else am I supposed to think when I come into your room and find you in bed with another guy?"

"He has a point," Axel mused.

"But we weren't doing anything! We're wearing clothes!"

"You can do a lot of things while wearing clothes!"

"He still has a point," Axel said.

Roxas glared. "You're not helping."

Sora crossed his arms. "See, even Axel agrees with me. And it's not as if you couldn't have put them back on." He shook his head. "I told you I didn't _mind_, Roxas. I just wish you'd told me first. And, um…" He turned a little pink. "You did use protection, right?"

"Sora!" Roxas buried his face in his hands. "Jesus Christ, no one here's getting _pregnant_!"

"I know, but…there are STDs and…even if you _weren't_ having sex, you could still…" Sora trailed off awkwardly, and Roxas groaned. This was _awful_.

Axel laughed, then cleared his throat. "You know, as hilarious as this whole situation is, now might be a good time to tell your brother that we're actually just best friends, and that you were feeling sick last night, and that I drove you home, and decided to stay because you looked like you weren't feeling well, and I was concerned. Don't you think that would be appropriate, Roxas?"

Roxas sighed. He certainly hadn't expected it to come up like this, if ever, but there was really no avoiding it now. "Yeah. What he said. We're best friends, and I really _was_ feeling tired, Sora. We didn't sneak off to fool around."

"If we had," Axel added, "I wouldn't have stuck around in the morning long enough to get caught by you. I mean, at least give me a _little_ credit, kid. We would have locked the door."

"I guess…that's _true_…" Sora still looked skeptical. "Since when have you two even gotten along?"

Roxas didn't really want to talk about that, and Axel, sensing this, said, "Oh, since about, I don't know, his freshman year. We just figured it'd kind of rock the boat less if we didn't tell anyone about it. You know, you're brother's kind of a square, and I have a reputation to uphold. That sort of thing."

Sora, vaguely surprised said, "That…explains…a lot, actually. I mean, he's always going off places without telling us, like on Wednesdays at lunch and…so, he's with you?" Axel nodded. Sora clearly didn't know what to make of this. "Does anyone else know?"

"Demyx," said Roxas. "That's it."

"Oh…" Sora looked down at his feet. "Sorry, then. I mean, for freaking out at you. But you _were_ cuddling. Or it looked like that."

"Um." Roxas didn't really have an excuse for that. "It happens?"

"I do that," Axel explained. "In my sleep, I mistook your brother for a beautiful woman. But in my defense, that isn't very hard. Oh, _Juliet_…" Roxas elbowed him in the gut, and he cried out in pain, but everyone present knew that it was deserved.

Sora grinned awkwardly. "Well, then. Best friends, huh?" They nodded. "That's totally alright. Again, it would have been nice to know that before, but…" He shrugged. "It's too late for that now. So do you guys want me to not tell anyone, or what?"

Roxas nodded. "Yes, please. You took it fine, but I don't know if Hayner…" He sighed. "Although Hayner's probably got more important things on his mind now."

"Like face-eating?" Axel offered.

"I'm sure we all could have figured that out, Axel, thanks."

"Anytime."

Sora cleared his throat. "Speaking of face-eating—"

"It's either Riku or Kairi," Axel said, quietly so that Sora couldn't hear. "I'm betting Riku. Did you see the way he was looking at your brother last night?"

"What was that?" Sora asked.

Axel put on his most innocent face. "Nothing. Please, do continue."

"O…kay…" Sora gave Axel an odd look. "Kai called earlier. She said if you and Riku were feeling up to it she'd like you two to meet her downtown this afternoon to go over some characterization stuff for _Romeo and Juliet_. I told her I'd check to see if you weren't too busy." He studied Roxas and Axel, taking in Axel's arm which he really hadn't bothered to remove from Roxas' waist over the course of the conversation. "You…aren't too busy?"

"For the last time, Sora," said Roxas, "we are not dating."

Sora threw up his hands. "I didn't even mean it like that that time! Are you awake enough? Do you have too much work?"

Roxas shook his head. "I should be okay by like, two. Can you call her back and tell her that?"

"Alright." Sora waved. "Good seeing you, Axel. You might want to get out of here before Dad comes in."

"Point taken." Axel yawned and stretched. "Take care, kid. And remember," he flicked the side of his nose in a gesture a la _The Sting_, "you didn't see me."

Amused, Sora nodded, said, "Right," and departed, and, once he'd gone, Roxas let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that could have gone…worse. I guess. Somehow."

"Damn," Axel replied, setting his feet on the floor and pushing himself off of the bed. "And I was _sure_ it was about Riku. You know that kid's just brimming with hormonse. He is going to lose control someday and—"

"Yes, I know. Thankfully, today was not your day to be right."

Axel laughed. "Next time, Gadget! Next time." He glanced around Roxas' room, as if for the first time. "Nice place you've got here. Should I leave the way I came?"

"I think you'd better," said Roxas, crossing to the window. "My parents will hear the front door. So…" He pushed it open, earning himself a blast of cold air to the face. "I believe the line is, 'Then window, let day in, and let life out.'" He smiled. "Get out of here."

"Wait, wait, I know this." Axel went over to the window and leaned against the wall. "It's 'Farewell, farewell, one kiss and I'll descend,' right?"

"Glad to see you know Romeo's lines," Roxas said, laughing uneasily. He didn't really like to think about Axel in a kissing sort of context. Not since that dream. "Now go. I don't want to you to have to prove Sora right about either one of us being gay."

"Oh, come on. The script says I'm entitled to a kiss. And…" He leaned forward and gave Roxas a swift and overdramatic peck on the cheek. Roxas pushed him off, wiping at his face with his hand. "There it is. And now I will goeth down."

He put one foot over the windowsill and, one hand still on the window, grabbed at the nearest, somewhat fragile-looking tree branch. When he caught it, he brought his other hand up, then inched slowly back up the branch to the tree trunk. He looked absolutely ridiculous, and Roxas couldn't hide the smile. When Axel was about halfway down the tree, he lost his grip and fell to the ground, landing shaken but unharmed, still grinning. "It's not as easy as it looks in the movies. Um, 'I shall omit no opportunity to…something something…love.' Close enough?"

"Close enough," Roxas agreed, closing the window. "Call me when you get home so I know you haven't accidentally killed yourself. And, Axel?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

He slammed the window down, and Axel left, smiling.

---

**A/N: **We now return you to your regularly scheduled play.

This chapter was originally supposed to end with Roxas being angsty, but I think that last scene fits a bit better. It signifies a return to the flow of things. Anyway, I'll try to have an update by this weekend, but this week promises to be hellish. Keep an eye out, and I'll see you then!


	7. Act Three, Part Two

**_A/N:_** I got 99 reviews and a bitch ain't one~ Just kidding. Hi! Sorry for the week-long delay in ficcage. This chapter's a little shorter, but that's because the other half of act three was so long. Some EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENTS before we begin.

First of all, for those of you who are more citrus-inclined and are dismayed at the lack of actual sexing in this story, my lovely beta Dari wrote a somewhat in-verse oneshot for this called _Five Acts: Intermission 2_. You can find it in my favorites. Read it and enjoy; I did, and I'm extremely grateful to her for writing it, as it turned out wonderfully. Give her love!

Secondly, my deviantart account has a bunch of illustrations for this story on it. They're not amazing, but you might find them fun to look at, so the link to them (and to some fanarts for this story) is in my profile, in case you want to check them out.

And, lastly, thanks to **XFamousXLastXWordsX, Ren13013, Michele-bell, iluvtoady, Meyx, nakceb, Ldrmas, Rose Riku, Naracat Epos Seville, Kaida Shade, FinalFallenFantasy, SarahXxUnlovedxX, j u li eT l o v e you, Knit. pump, animebecca, terra hotaru, Mirror-Leak, Bursting-Bubbles, Aindel S. Druida, Mitsuru Aki, SuicuneLover12, Vinillii, **and **SendMeAGiftBasketOrElse**. You guys are awesome and patient and I love you all!

Enjoy the late chapter!

---

**Act 3, Scenes 6 & 7: Almost**

---

It was the following Monday that things started to get a little odd.

Roxas supposed it started with Demyx. The guitarist/sitarist/sound crew assistant chief/break-dancer/jack-of-all-trades had caught Roxas in the hallway before school to ask if he was alright. It was a question which took Roxas by surprise.

"I'm fine," he'd said at the time. "Why do you ask?"

Demyx shrugged, then ran a hand through that ridiculous hair of his, which, this morning, seemed to have some paint in it. And it wasn't even eight yet! "I just saw you run out of Homecoming. You didn't look so good. Were you sick?"

"Oh." Roxas smiled, shrugged too, to show Dem that he was feeling okay. "No, just a bit claustrophobic. I'm fine now. Axel helped me."

"Mm-hmm…" Demyx nodded. "Larx isn't going to be happy with him. Did he spend the night at your place?"

"Yeah, he—"

A familiar voice cut them off. "Dudes!" Xigbar exclaimed, walking towards them down the hallway, balancing, in one arm, a very colorful stack of books. Roxas saw a couple of _No Fear Shakespeare_s and a volume of _Drama for Dummies_ peeking out, sandwiched between some hardcovers. "How's it hanging?"

"Um." Roxas supposed he should have been used to this by now, but he had been caught unawares by Demyx's question, immediately preceding, and, again, it was before eight, so he was a little slow to think. "How's…_what_…hanging?"

"We're good," Demyx said casually. "How're you?"

"Rad, man," said Xigbar, his one visible eye glinting in the harsh, bright lights of the hallway. "Homecoming was totally bitchin', you know?"

Demyx nodded enthusiastically. "Yep. Rad. It was fun," he added to an increasingly confused Roxas. "Got a lot of good dancing in."

"I saw that!" Xigbar exclaimed. "Dude, some of those moves you pulled were off the wall. I was so impressed."

"Really? I—" Demyx smiled shyly. Shyly! Demyx! "Thanks."

"Oh, no problem," said Xigbar. "I am honored to have you in my class, man. Put it here."

He offered his hand, which Demyx high-fived enthusiastically as Roxas looked on, so incredibly confused and more than a bit wierded out. Demyx looked happy to have received recognition, though. Apparently, break-dancing could do what a few well-crafted paper airplanes could not.

"Well, see you in first," said Demyx, trying to keep the utter glee from leaking into his voice.

"Yeah, see you," said Xigbar. "And you, too, little dude," he added, ruffling Roxas's hair. "Keep it real."

"Will do," Roxas replied dutifully, watching Xigbar as he started off back down the hallway. "That was…um, interesting. Does that happen to you a lot?" No reply. "Dem?"

Demyx was still staring, even though Xigbar had long since vanished around a corner. His eyes were big and wide and very, very blue. Roxas thought he looked rather like he might explode from joy. "I am never washing this hand again," he marveled, his voice oddly quiet. "Ever. Rox, he spoke to me. He _high-fived_ me."

"Well, it can't be the first time. I mean, you're in his _class_—"

"Out of class!" Dem exclaimed. "To complement me, and…wow. I mean, wow." He grinned. "That's more luck than I ever had with Zexy. No matter how much I acted out he'd never even give me a detention. But…Xigbar…"

He sighed. Rox, growing increasingly concerned for his mental health, waved a hand in front of his face. The other boy didn't as much as blink. "Uh, Dem? You okay?"

"I might have to go lie down," Demyx said happily, still looking at the end of the hallway. "Wake me up when class starts."

"We have two minutes!"

"It'll be the shortest nap of my life," said Demyx, patting Roxas on the shoulder as he started walking off down the hall. "And the best. Have fun with your day."

And, with that, he wandered away, Roxas staring after him, unable to wrap his head around the way Demyx had turned into a total zombie over a graying, surfer-pirate drama teacher. After about fifteen seconds of trying to comprehend the situation, he shook his head and started heading off towards first period History. Crazy Mondays weren't exactly a revolutionary discovery, after all.

But this was only the beginning of an exceptionally unusual day.

The entire morning was immediately thrown off when Roxas walked into first period and found two of his closest friends lip-locked. Of course, he should have known that whatever had sprung up between Hayner and Olette on Homecoming night would at least last a little while before it fizzled out again, as it inevitably would. Still, it had shocked him a little when Mr. Zexion had to pry the two of them apart with the meter stick he kept specifically for that purpose. In all of the confusion resulting from Homecoming itself, he'd almost completely forgotten that those two had changed their relationship statuses, even though, like everything else important, it _had_ shown up in his Facebook feed.

Then he got an A on his math test, something which happened only once in a blue moon. His quiz and homework scores managed to keep his grade afloat, and he studied regularly, but the Calc teacher, Mr. Marluxia, was an evil, evil bitch who asked them to derive the most complicated math equations known to man. He didn't just hand out As. So, in second period, Rox had sat in stunned silence, staring at his red-inked forty-six out of fifty, wondering what in the world could possibly have gone right.

Axel forcibly kidnapped Roxas and took him out to lunch, even though it wasn't Wednesday. Roxas didn't mind; he was being kept late after rehearsals the entire week for intimacy exercises—shudder—with Riku, and, hence, his post-rehearsal Axel time had gotten cut. Besides, he'd rather not stick around to watch Hayner and Olette make out, though he felt a bit bad leaving Pence to fend for himself. He was only gone for a grand total of fifteen minutes, though, just long enough to pick up sandwitches from the E-Z-Mart on Kingdom Street and make plans for later. Axel got off work at nine, and he wanted to chill for an hour with his best friend before collapsing in bed. Roxas agreed, instantly divising three excuses to feed his parents, figuring he could do his homework sitting in Starbucks in that gap between six and nine.

He noticed the handprint still smarking on Axel's cheek, but didn't say a word about it, preferring not to keep out of any business involving Larxene.

It was after school at rehearsal that everything became ridiculous.

"Hi, Roxas!"

Roxas had just been crossing the stage in the direction of the dressing rooms, to which he'd been summoned, when he heard the voice calling out to him. He turned, scanning the stage for the source of the voice, but didn't see anyone he knew. Shrugging, he chalked it up to his imagination and continued on his way, shifting his backpack up on his shoulder.

"Roxas!"

This time, he looked up. A slim girl he'd never seen before in his life, he was sure of it, was balanced on a ladder above his head, whitewashing the balcony. She must be a member of set decoration. Roxas had known that set dec was meeting today—they'd been painting and pasting for the past week—but he didn't think he knew anyone on the crew. He'd certainly never seen this girl before. He would have remembered her rainbow-layered tank tops, her long, peacock-feather earrings, her short hair which was now splattered with paint. She, however, seemed to recognize him, and raised her roller in greeting.

"You're playing Juliet, right?" she asked, and Roxas heard a trace of shyness in her voice despite her bold appearance.

"Um," he said, still wondering who Rainbow Girl was. He thought, fleetingly, that she looked a little like a girl he'd dated in middle school, and, perhaps, a little like Kairi, but that he wasn't instantly going about gauging her beauty. She was attractive—no doubt about that—but he wasn't…why was he thinking about this at all? "Yeah, that's me."

She smiled more with her brilliant blue eyes than with her mouth. "Keep up the good work. I think you're doing really well."

"You do?"

"Yeah." Rainbow Girl nodded emphatically. "Much better than Claire Danes."

"Uh, well, thanks." Roxas glanced around, trying to think of a way to run away without seeming rude. "Hey, I have to get to costumes. Catch up with you later?"

"Sure," said Rainbow Girl, leaning back up on the ladder to continue painting. "See you!"

Roxas nodded, then beat it.

He was still thinking about Rainbow Girl—who the hell _was_ she? Did he have a stalker? Who would stalk Juliet Boy?—when he arrived in the dressing rooms and Aerith thrust a shiny costume at him. Without taking the time to look at it, he proceeded into the guy's dressing room, where Axel was taking off some 1600's-esque leggings which he'd just been trying on. Still so distracted that he didn't bother making a snide comment, Roxas stripped down to his underwear and pulled whatever Aerith had given him on over his head, and was surprised to find that it fell an inch or three shorter than the hem of his boxers.

"Uh, Aerith?" he called tentatively from behind the door, not daring to come out. "Did you forget to give me pants?"

"No," was the reply, but it came from Kairi. "She did not."

"Then…" He glanced in the mirror, then looked quickly away, somewhat appalled. "What the hell _is_ this?"

"Hot," Axel volunteered.

"Your nightgown for act three, scene five," Kairi said. "The morning after scene. We'll give you a robe to put over it when your mother comes in, but the idea is—"

"Are you kidding?!" Roxas exclaimed, flinging the nightgown off over his head without a second thought. "Kairi, I tolerated the dress, but there is no way you are putting me out on stage in a freaking _negligee_."

"What dress?" Axel asked, interested, just as Kairi said, warningly, "Roxas—"

"I don't fucking care, Kai. I'm not doing it. Put it on Riku, for God's sake."

There was a long pause from the other side of the door. Then, Roxas heard a long sigh. "Axel, how did it look on him?"

"Oh, man," Axel said, earning a well-deserved glare. "Don't look at me like that, Rox. You're a hot chick. Of course, I'd much rather see the little skimpy night gown on _Kairi_—" He said that bit extra loudly so their director was sure to hear. "—but you made it work. You can't wear the boxers under it, though."

"Good enough," said Kairi, and the next thing the boys inside the room heard was the sound of her retreating footsteps. Each one exponentially augmented the alarm which Roxas felt at the prospect of wearing that…thing.

He pounded on the dressing room door. "What the fuck does that _mean_, Kairi?" he called. "Kairi! I really don't want to have to make Sora a widower if I don't have to, but I swear to God I will. Dammit, get back—"

A pair of warm hands on his shoulders cut him off, made him stop, panting a little from the force of his own bellowing. "Hey." Axel leaned down to speak softly in Roxas' ear, a feeble attempt to calm him down. "Chill, Rox. She's gone. There's nothing you can do."

"Fuck." Roxas kicked at the door, resulting in a resounding thud due to the fact that he'd pulled his jeans off in such a hurry that he'd forgotten his sneakers. "Shit. Axel, she's going to make me wear that thing. I won't let her. I have to draw the line somewhere, and I'm not going to stand there while Riku feels me up in a scrap of fabric which barely exists."

Axel sighed. "I know. For the record, it did look ravishing on you. Aside from the sneakers. And the boxers."

"Great," Roxas groaned, leaning forward to rest his head against the doorframe in the universal gesture for "fuck my life."

Axel's hands moved, too, allowing the lanky redhead's arms to drape themselves across Roxas' torso and the rest of him to press against Roxas' back. Roxas only really realized that Axel wasn't wearing a shirt when he felt the warm, bare skin of his chest. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'll go talk to Kai, and tell her it was the most ghastly thing in the world, and that she can't possibly let you go out on stage in it."

"That's alright. She'd know you were lying." Roxas shrugged with the implicit intent of getting Axel off of him. "And let me go, you pervert. Half-naked groping in the dressing room is not my idea of fun."

"This is hardly groping," Axel protested. "If you wanted groping, all you'd have to do was ask."

"Not interested," Roxas managed, feeling rather lightheaded at the general proximity and lack of clothing, but deciding to pass it off as caused by the bad egg salad sandwich he'd scarfed down at luch. He shook Axel off and located his pants, pulling them on one leg at a time before Axel, pervert that he was, could ogle his chicken legs any longer.

Axel chuckled, perfectly content to lean up against the door in his underwear. He really wasn't badly built at all, Roxas noticed, because he was tall and thin but had that wiry sort of musculature, and certainly possessed more defined abs than Roxas did. With that grin on his face, one which would have looked positively lecherous on anyone else, he almost appeared to be posing. Perhaps Naminé would want to draw him like that. As soon as the stupid thought surfaced, Roxas banished it from his mind, feeling, somehow, infinitely more self-concious. Well, it wasn't his fault he had a good-looking best friend.

"Maybe someday you will be," Axel remarked. "And then, you know who to call."

Roxas sighed in disgust—secretly reminded of that awful dream—and chucked his shirt at Axel's face.

He'd never liked Mondays.

---

The rest of the week fell into a rather less interesting pattern of normalcy. Intimacy exercises proved to be not terribly terrifying, just a lot of sitting around and highlighting "operative words" in the romantic scenes and staring into each other's eyes while holding hands. Kissing wasn't something they were going to broach until the following week, Kairi informed them, so they could spend this time getting to know each other a bit better, and learning to get along.

Hell yeah. Like that was ever going to work.

Even so, Roxas found the sessions to be tolerable, although they were considerably less interesting than his afternoon post-rehearsal chats with Axel and Demyx. He missed Axel, though. He was surprised to find how much he missed Axel. And, after knocking out all of his homework on Saturday, Sunday found him in the park again, under that same oak tree as before, sitting with Axel, as before, recounting his week to the redhead's willing ears.

"Anyway, I'm not excited for tomorrow's rehearsal," Roxas finished bitterly. "If there's any day he and I are going to kill each other, it's tomorrow. I bequeath my Starbucks gift cards and my collection of _No_ _Fear Shakespeare_s to you."

Axel laughed, and Roxas could feel the quick staccato movements of his chest as he did. He really should have minded sitting this close, with his head pillowed on some other guy's collarbone, with that guy's hands around his waist, but he didn't. With Axel, anything was game. Axel was just like that, and even since that dream—especially since that dream—Roxas couldn't quite bring himself to be entirely uncomfortable with it. "Why tomorrow?" Axel asked. "Your one-month anniversary, isn't it?"

"Oh, shut up. You'd know if you _ever _read your rehearsal schedule that tomorrow's stage kissing practice."

"Aww." Axel squeezed him around the middle. "You and lover-boy, locking lips at last! I can take pictures, right? I mean, you want some souvenirs to show to your children. 'This is the show where your father and I fell in—'"

"Hatred," Roxas muttered. "Total bitter hatred. I'm so not the girl in this relationship, by the way. Riku wins _that _prize because he has the hair and he's always PMS-ing."

Axel couldn't help but laugh again at that. "Really, Rox," he said. "He's hormonal, but he's not an awful person. Not that awful, at least. Besides, half the girls in school are jealous of you and your lips for getting anywhere near Romeo."

"Half of the girls in school can _have_ my lips _and_ Romeo for all I care. Not that he'd want anything to do with them." Roxas sighed. "_God_."

"You're a bad little sport, aren't you?" Axel asked, amused. His mouth was really only inches from Roxas' ear. "It's just stage kissing. It's not even real kissing."

"See, people keep saying that!" Roxas exclaimed, turning his head to look up at Axel. "But I don't buy it. I mean, I still have to _kiss_ him, right? His mouth still has to be on my mouth, right? I mean, if it were some girl I didn't like, that'd be fine. It'd at least be a girl. But it's a guy, _and_ it's Riku. And I don't—I guess it's the guy thing that's tripping me up, too. I mean, what if—I mean, it's a _guy_, and I don't—I mean, there was that one dream, but, gah, that's just one more reason not to kiss guys, right? And I'm not going to just—"

He was cut off rather abruptly, by something which should have been rather foreseeable, given his position, but hadn't been, really, and when it came he was so incredibly shocked that he stopped breathing for its two second duration, during which the mechanisms in his brain completely broke down and fell to pieces somewhere around his sinuses. The rest of his body forgot what it was supposed to be doing, and could only lay there, slumped against Axel's chest, limp as a rag doll from the shock. This was probably fortunate for Axel, who probably deserved to be punched or kicked or struggled against or something. Right?

When Axel pulled away, Roxas stared and said, "Um. You. Um. That was—"

"A kiss?" Axel suggested.

Roxas nodded. "Yes. That. Um…_why_?"

"Well, you were making such a fuss about kissing a guy, and it really isn't very different from kissing a girl you don't like," Axel explained, taking this all way too easily. "And you're still alive, aren't you?"

"Uh." He was alive. However, the part of his brain which had regained thought first was telling him that if he didn't like Axel, those little tingles in his stomach should not be there. Because they were not the bad sort of tingles. Unless they were. Unless Axel had given him some sort of communicable-by-kissing disease, (like mono but not, since mono remained dormant for so long) and he was going to die from it.

He stared up at Axel with wide eyes and shouted, "You gave me swine flu, didn't you?"

"No," Axel chuckled. "You are flu-free, and will live to see another day. Isn't that a relief?"

"I…" Roxas rather thought he should have been angry. So he tried to channel the anger. It was very hard with the tingles in his stomach distracting him. It felt very like the way it had in that dream, actually, and, God, he didn't want it to. "Why didn't you _ask_ me?"

"Oh, yes," said Axel, rolling his eyes. "_That_ would have gone very well. I would have gotten punched in the face, and you would never have learned a very valuable lesson. This way we both win. I am not punched, and you have been kissed, and now we can go about our daily lives without interruption."

"But…but…" Roxas shook his head to clear it. "That was so _easy_ for you, though," he said instead. "I mean, have you…um, have you kissed guys?"

"Why," said Axel, mock-offended, "that is a very personal question which I am under no obligation to answer." He paused. "Well, there was this one time where someone spiked the punch at—man, it was this _crazy _party—anyway, Demyx sort of had too much, and we somehow ended up getting locked in this—"

"I get the picture," said Roxas, who was hoping this story would shoo away the tingles. "Thanks."

Axel punched Roxas lightly on the shoulder. "Oh, you're so cute. No, nothing _happened_. We woke up fully clothed in some stranger's coat closet, looked at each other, remembered what happened, and spent a good hour or two laughing about it."

"But you were drunk," Roxas protested. "That doesn't count."

"Hmm." Axel kissed Roxas above the ear absentmindedly. Roxas, for his part, couldn't really bring himself to care. "I guess not. Oh, well, I'm sure there were other times, but they just aren't coming to mind right now."

Roxas blinked. "Other times? But…" He shook his head, not quite sure how to make sense of all of this. "Have you _dated_ guys, then? I mean, how did I not know about this?"

Axel squeezed him. "I haven't dated guys. But since when have you taken an interest in anyone I've dated, Rox?" He laughed. "You know, in the time that we've been friends, I've had three girlfriends, and I don't think I even mentioned any of them to you."

"_Three_?"

"Yeah." Axel shrugged. "None of them were really around for very long, though. Probably a month or so, maximum."

"Oh." Roxas considered this. Axel had never _mentioned_ girlfriends, although they always could have existed without him mentioning them specifically, but…why wouldn't he have said anything? He knew that most teenage boys (Sora excepted) tried to work it into every sentence, always "my girlfriend" this or "my girlfriend" that. And it wasn't as if Axel had drastically rearranged his normal routines for them. "I'm sorry, I guess. Why didn't they last?"

Axel shrugged again. "I couldn't keep dating them with good conscience. It felt like cheating."

"Like cheating?" It came out as a whisper. Roxas hadn't meant it to. "Cheating on who?"

"That'd be 'whom,'" Axel teased, kissing Roxas on the nose in a way which made just about everything even more terribly tingly than before. "Wouldn't it?"

"Dammit, Axel, I can't imagine that that's important _right_—" And it was then, just then, that Roxas caught a flash of silver hair from somewhere off to his left. He froze. "Shit. Let go of me. Do it right now."

Axel's expression zoomed from playfulness to concern in one-point-two seconds flat. "Why, Rox? What happened?"

"It's _Riku_," Roxas said, trying to pry Axel's arms from around his waist. "And if he sees us like this—shit, he doesn't even know we _like_ each other, imagine what he'd think if—"

Axel leaned down, and his mouth was almost on top of Roxas' ear when he whispered, "But isn't it true?"

Which made Roxas stop struggling. It also, consequently, left him defenseless and excuseless when Riku approached, dressed in sweatpants with his odd silver hair tied back from his face in a ponytail. It might have looked girly on anyone else, but not on Riku, whose blue-green eyes swept over Roxas in Axel's lap with what Roxas would have considered a justified degree of scrutiny had he not been involved.

It was totally okay for Sora to find something like this out. But it wasn't the sort of thing Roxas wanted his archnemesis holding against him. At all. Especially when Roxas wasn't quite sure anymore what "this" was.

"Roxas," said Riku, with a barely perceptible nod. "Axel."

"Yo," said Axel, in a turn of phrase which Roxas knew _firsthand_ made him sound like that hick cousin Reno in Texas. "What's going on, lover boy? Out for a jog?"

"Yeah." Riku looked them over again. A bone-chilling, leaden awkwardness seeped into Roxas' skin. "And you two?"

"Practicing lines," Roxas rushed, and he felt Axel's arms tighten almost imperceptibly around him, almost as if he were afraid Riku was going to take Roxas away. "And blocking. Ours. From the balcony scene. Right, Axel?"

He dug his elbow into Axel's kidney, and Axel let out a yelp of affirmation.

"I see," Riku said, and Roxas knew that he was definitely thinking that whatever that was looked nothing like their blocking. Smug bastard. "So, you two are…friends?"

Axel nodded. "_Good_ friends. I guess we're sort of like…you and Sora."

"No," Roxas hissed. "Not as _close_ as they are."

"But just by a little," Axel assured Riku, who, if he'd gotten the meaning, didn't show it. "Rox and I, we are pretty close. We have a lot in common. Similar tastes in restaurants, for one." He shifted, and even though Roxas couldn't see his face he knew that there was a wicked, awful grin on it. "See, I think Roxas is just embarrassed about hanging around a sexy Delinquent such as myself. It's bad press."

"Shut. _Up_."

Riku nodded, and Roxas could almost hear the cogs churning in that boy's brain. "But you guys have only known each other for a month or so. I guess you just really hit it off."

"That we did," said Axel. "But if you'd excuse us, Blondie and I have lines to practice. We'd ask you to stay, but it looks like we've interrupted your running, and, hey, gotta keep in shape somehow." He winked. It was probably a flirtatious sort of wink. The kind which would have really unnerved Riku if Riku were actually straight.

Riku, not being actually straight, wasn't unnerved in the slightest. And Riku, already having prior experience with Axel, was unnerved even less. "Sure, see you tomorrow," was all he said, before he took off down the path again, leaving the two other boys behind in the dust.

"My God," Roxas said, after Riku was safely out of earshot. "My God, Axel, I can't believe you. Could you have possibly made that look any _worse_?"

"I think there were ways that it _could _have been—"

"I mean, you might have just flat out said that we were dating!"

"Roxas—"

"I don't need _Riku_ thinking that I'm—"

"Roxas, shut the fuck up and listen to me."

Axel's voice, at that one moment in time, was scary. Roxas did.

After a moment, he heard a sigh, and felt Axel's shoulders slump. "What do you want from me?" Axel asked, much more quietly. "Roxas, what the hell do you want? Because I'll tell you what I want. No, I'll tell you what I hate. I hate having to feel like I'm the skeleton in your closet. I hate you having to make excuses to your friends all of the time, and I hate acting like this just to have an excuse to _touch_—"

"Don't."

"Why _not_?"

"Because I can't deal with it right now," Roxas said. It was almost a whisper. "Axel, I—I don't know what the fuck is going on in my brain. You saw that at Homecoming. If you told me something like…I don't even know. But it isn't you. It's the show, and Kairi keeps trying to put me in dresses and my fucking rainbow stalker said hello to me everyday this week and there's _homework_ and I don't want another mental breakdown." He sighed and closed his eyes, leaning back against Axel's chest as Axel held him, leaned the side of his face against the top of Roxas' head.

"So what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to…" He sighed. "I don't know what you're trying to tell me, Axel, and I think I would know if I thought about it more, but I can't do that right now. I just want you to be there for me like you always have, and maybe after the play we can talk about it. We can come back here and talk. But for now, can we…not?"

Axel was silent for such a long time that Roxas was afraid that he'd scared his friend away. He didn't know what he was promising Axel. Hell, he didn't even really know what the hell he was so afraid of. But Axel just kissed him on the forehead and said, "We can not talk, if you don't want to."

Every muscle in Roxas body relaxed as he said, "Thank you. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Axel leaned forward. "So, what was this about a stalker?"

---

**_A/N:_** Awh, we almost got angsty there. Guesses as to the identity of Rainbow Girl?

Also, be sure to check out the fic and the art! See you soon!


	8. Act Four, Part One

**_A/N:_** Why, how now! Forsooth! What is this? A chapter done before the weekend? Can I believest mine eyes?

Actually, this chapter was propelled on by the fact that I just performed my Shakespeare-themed one-act play, which provided minor amounts of inspiration for this fic in the first place. A lot of scenes here were inspired by rehearsals. The stage kissing scene wasn't, however. Luckily, the boy I had to kiss on stage was a perfect gentleman. Not like our Riku. :3. Of course, I'm kidding. We all know Riku is the epitome of gentlemanliness.

Rambling aside, here are the thanks: **Wiggy, Rapid Motion, annalise, xXxSilverMoonxXx, wolf2q, Cadaverrific, animebecca, SuicuneLover12, XFamousXLastXWordsX, XloneXwriter, loki lee, FinalFallenFantasy, Aindel S. Druida, j u li eT l o v e you, terra hotaru, Mitsuru Aki, Capeircorn, Bursting Bubbles, nakceb, Michele-bell, SarahXxUnlovedxX, **and **SendMeAGiftBasketOrElse**, who caught my 100th review! Thanks so much to everyone who helped me reach 100 in the first place! You guys all rock.

Enjoy the chapter! I've been looking forward to writing this one for a long time. Almost as long as I've been looking forward to the _next_ one. This one is long, but like **Aindel**said, act four of _R and J_ never seems to end. Hopefully, this will be a whole lot more fun-filled.

---

**Act 4, Scenes 1-3: My Sin Again**

---

The next day's rehearsal went relatively smoothly. Relatively, of course, meant that Hayner only knocked down _one_ of the spray-painted Styrofoam pillars, Axel only made improper overtures to Kairi in the middle of a scene twice, and Roxas only accidentally ground Riku's toes under his shoe once. Other than that, it was pretty obvious that a lot of the actual acting was coming together. Pence had his Nurse walk down, Olette had no problem being tearfully angry when Roxas refused to marry Paris, and Riku could touch Roxas without either of them feeling particularly homicidal. All in all, it wasn't such a bad half-run.

Of course, what followed would be worse.

"Alright, guys," Kairi said, stopping them right after the balcony scene. "It's 5:30. You're all free to go. Selphie will send you the notes tonight, so check your email. Roxas, Riku—"

"Yeah, yeah," Roxas muttered irritably. "We know."

Riku shot him a smug glance. "Nervous?"

"Not nervous," he replied. "More rightfully worried that I'm going to catch some bizarre, fatal, and horribly mutated form of cootie from you. But not nervous."

That earned him a laugh and a sardonic smile. "Do you know who you sounded _just_ like right then?"

"You know what?" Roxas snapped. "I can guess." And he descended the ladder from the balcony, huffing, and went out into the empty auditorium to collect his things, wondering if he'd be able to get through this without punching Riku in the face. He didn't really need that face.

As he stuffed his well-highlighted, well-used script in his backpack—they'd been off-book since the middle of last week, but he always kept it close by just in case—he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He turned around, looking up, expecting to see Axel, but had to direct his gaze a foot or so downward when he realized who it actually was.

"Take care," said Rainbow Girl, dressed today in an ensemble which looked like it might have leapt head-first out of the eighties. Roxas wondered dimly where anyone could actually purchase hot pink leggings in this day and age.

"Thanks," he replied. Despite her inherent stalkertude, there was something else very companionable about Rainbow Girl. Her bold clothes masked a reserved shyness, and Roxas had noticed that she always had a book somewhere around. Today's—_Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_—was tucked under her shoulder. Their puzzling, one-sentence greetings had opened up a couple of times into actual conversation. He still didn't know her name. It seemed rude to ask. "I have stage kissing practice this afternoon."

Rainbow Girl offered him a sympathetic smile. "Good luck."

"I'll need it. I'll just set the bar low." He leaned on the armrest of the seat occupied by his backpack. "My goal today will be to not catch any diseases. We'll build up from there."

Wrinkling her nose rather cutely, Rainbow Girl said, "Brush your teeth when you get home."

"I will."

"Well, I just wanted to say that set dec's pretty much done, so I won't be at rehearsal all of the time," she said, sounding a bit disappointed. "But I am on makeup, so I'll be there all of Hell Week. Maybe I'll see you around in the hallway?"

"Yeah, that would be nice," said Roxas, who was surprised to find out that he meant it. "See you."

She nodded, then scampered off, hoisting a pink and purple messenger bag up on her shoulder and sprinting out the door. Roxas watched her go, feeling a little less dark and gloomy.

"So that's your stalker?" Axel asked from behind him. "Cute. Blinding, but cute. Sort of the type who would smile all innocently and pull a knife so she could force you into the closet and subject you to all of her perverted—"

Roxas sighed. "I think you're mixing her up with you."

"Maybe." Axel squeezed Roxas' shoulder. "Good luck with lover boy, Blondie. I have to go to work. Call you later."

"'Kay. Have fun."

And he, too, was gone. Roxas watched that red, spiky-haired head disappear through one of the auditorium's many doorways with a rush of affection. Behind him, Hayner coughed. "So, uh, what was that about?"

Oh. Crap. It was then Roxas realized that he wasn't supposed to know Axel. "Homework help," he said. "That guy, Axel, can't do math for the life of him. He calls me whenever he has questions. Which is a lot."

"Okay…" Hayner didn't seem convinced, though. "Hey, you have to stay late today, right? Should we start walking home without you?"

Roxas nodded. "That might be a good idea. Kairi'll probably keep us awhile."

"Of course." Grinning, Hayner added, "And if Riku tries anything funny with you, knee him in the balls."

"Oh, don't worry," Roxas said in a low voice. "I've got it covered."

"There will be no kneeing anyone while I am in charge," Kairi cut in, walking up the aisle with Riku a few feet behind. Roxas wondered if he'd heard them. He didn't really care. He would have wanted it, actually. Riku needed to know that if his lips went anywhere they _shouldn't_—

Roxas was apprehensive largely because, truthfully, he was the person who looked most like Sora in the entire school, and whenever Riku had dated previously, he'd chosen people who'd looked like Sora. More than anything, Roxas didn't want Riku forgetting who he was with, or who he wasn't with. He wanted Riku's hands to stay where they could see them and Riku's mouth not to venture anywhere it didn't have to. And if it took a little bit of physical force to enforce that rule, well, so be it.

But to appease Kairi, he hung his head and said, "Fine, fine."

Riku scowled, disbelieving. Kairi nodded. "Well, we're going to be heading outside. The janitors are evicting us. Don't worry," she added, noting the disbelieving stares of both boys. "I'll find somewhere private. Follow me."

They did. They trailed Kairi out of the auditorium, out of the main doors of the school, and around the back, fidgeting as she decided finally to take them out to a grassy patch by an asphalt lot near the other side of the building. Thank goodness it wasn't the smoker's corner—Axel and Demyx, official Delinquents that they were, might still be loitering there. Even so, it wouldn't have been considered private by anyone's stretch of the imagination, except for, perhaps, the fact that no one else was around.

"Alright," said Kairi, sitting down with her back against a tree and opening her director's notebook in her lap. "You guys both know what you're here for."

They nodded gravely. It felt more like a funeral than a rehearsal, except that most funerals had less making out involved. "So, what's the trick?" Roxas asked, a last ditch effort to get through the next half-hour without vomiting.

"What?"

"The trick," he repeated. "The way you make it look like you're kissing when your mouths are actually a respectably distance apart. _That_ trick."

Kairi sighed. "The trick is to stand on your toes, lean up, and touch your lips together without giggling like three-year-olds. Honestly, Roxas, you know better than that."

"I know. It was worth a shot."

"But we're not going to be starting there," Kairi continued, as if he hadn't said anything at all. "Right now, I just want you two to hold hands—go on, do it, you need to get comfortable with each other—and look into each other's eyes and talk about your days. Go."

Riku glanced at Roxas. Roxas glanced at Riku. Then he sighed, and held out his hands for the other boy to take. "So," he said dully. "How was your day, dear?"

"Alright," Riku responded, not skipping a beat. "Went out to lunch with your brother and Kairi. Yours?"

"Fine." Roxas' day had been especially boring. He strove to find something to talk about. Then he wouldn't have to think about Riku's eyes and how intensely blue-green they were, and how Riku, curse him, had perfect skin, no zits to speak of. "Except I've been getting unusually good grades in Math lately. That's not really bad, but I think it's because Mr. Marluxia is perving on me. He seems like the type."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Riku replied. "We get stuck with the weirdest teachers. Dr. Vexen in AP Chem is definitely taking undue interest in me, and you know him."

"Creepy and old?"

"That's the one. He is _always_ staring at my hair."

"Alright," Kairi interjected. "Now, on your own time, change it to a hug."

Roxas looked up at Riku one more time, as if to say "Make sure your hands stay where they won't cause any trouble," before moving forward, consciously wrapping his arms around Riku's back as he felt the senior move one around Roxas' shoulder and the other just above his waist. Both respectful, innofensive places which would not cause any backlash. "You have…_unusual_ hair," Roxas said, emphasizing the word so that it almost came out like an insult. "Maybe he was distracted by that."

"He went on a tangent the other day about the ethics of human cloning, which had absolutely nothing to do with what we were studying, and he was staring at me the entire time. I felt like he wanted to clone me and keep the clone for his own personal amusement. Dirty pervert."

"You're just so attractive," Roxas said dryly. "No one can resist."

Riku smirked into his hair. Roxas thought that that bit of hair might never recover. "Do you know what Sora said?"

"What did Sora say?"

"Sora said that Vexen and Marluxia should just get together," Riku said, without a trace of irony. "He thinks it's the only way to stop them from paying too much attention to certain students."

Roxas snorted. "That brother of mine. He is so brilliant. Doesn't he realize that that would cause every single retina from here to Destiny Islands to explode?"

"Maybe not. But it seems like the only option at times."

"We could talk to the principal. Or you could cut your hair."

"No way," said Riku. "I _like_ my hair."

"You look like a girl."

"Haven't you read any shōjo manga lately?" Riku asked. "Girls love guys who look like girls."

"I'd _almost _buy that logic," Roxas said, "if I thought you were at _all_ interested in impressing girls. Wait, have_ you_ read any—"

"Great job," Kairi interjected, as if she didn't want to know the answer. "See, you two were almost friends! That's an incredible start."

Roxas pulled back and looked up at Riku, horrified. That—what had—that could have qualified as a friendly conversation! Roxas's standards were obviously slipping. "Don't expect it to happen again," he told Kairi, who ignored him. Riku glared at the back of Roxas' head. Roxas could feel it.

"What now?" asked the senior.

Kairi set her notebook down on the ground. "Well, since you both passed that test with flying colors, we can do one of two things. Either you recite some dialogue leading up to one of your kisses and then go for it, or you can just kiss without the play. Your choice."

Riku and Roxas exchanged a glance. That was not their kind of choice. "Err," said Riku, addressing Kairi. "Which do _you_ prefer?"

"I like to put it in context. It's really up to you two, though."

"I think I'd rather get it over with quickly," Riku said. Roxas nodded his agreement.

"Well, then." Kairi leaned back against the tree. "Go for it."

Roxas turned back to face Riku, and when he looked up into the other boy's eyes the old enmity came rolling back in waves. Put his lips to Riku's? Over his dead body. Sure, they might have gotten along for two seconds over the common fluke of being liked by teachers, but certainly not enough getting along to justify spontaneous making out. Riku seemed less than thrilled at the idea himself.

"Can you not watch?" Roxas asked.

"People will be watching, you know," Kairi said. "But sure, I can move off for a second. When I come back, though, you two better be glued together at the lips."

And with that, she picked up her bag and walked a little farther away. As soon as she was gone, Riku grew a lot tenser. But of course. He'd only been going along with this so she would give Sora a good report, tell him that Riku was a good boy. Roxas felt sick.

"I can't _believe_ this," Riku said quietly, clenching his teeth into what the audience might only mistake for a smile if they were half-blind. "I am going to kill that girl, best friend or not."

Pushing all dignity to the side, Roxas threw his arms around Riku's neck. Jesus, he was tall. Pushing up on his toes, Roxas hissed, "If it makes you feel any better, close your eyes and think of Sora."

The hands which had just found their place on Roxas' waist froze. He really should learn to think before speaking. No one else was around. It would be incredibly easy to get himself killed right then. Not that he couldn't take Riku on, of course, but he'd rather keep his arms intact. "_What_ did you say?" the older boy spat.

"You heard me." Roxas "tched" in disgust. "You're thinking of him now, aren't you?"

A fiery look sprang into Riku's eyes. "And you're telling me that you're not thinking of anyone else?"

"What the _hell_ are you talking about?"

"Goddamn little _liar_, aren't you?"

Roxas removed his arms from Riku's neck and pushed at his shoulders. "I'm leaving. I'm serious. Kairi will have to fucking deal with the fact that—"

For the second time in two days, he was cut off by someone else's mouth. Unlike that other time, however, there were no tingles, and Riku only kept his mouth there for half a second before pulling away. Roxas curse himself because he did think of Axel, but only for comparison purposes. Like that there were no tingles. Or much of anything, really. No overwhelming nausea, either. The brief moment of contact barely counted as a kiss. Certainly not either something either of them had to get worked up about. Riku's lips just felt like a pair of lips near his mouth that he hadn't wanted to be there.

And then Roxas realized.

Goddammit.

He'd wanted _Axel's _lips to be there, hadn't he?

It was this revelation more than anything else that made him dizzy when Riku straightened up, his grip on Roxas' waist loosening slightly. Roxas glared at him. "The hell was that?"

"A kiss," Riku replied, unruffled. "You should know, I'm sure you've been having enough experience with them for the past month or so to last you a lifetime. After all, Axel's not exactly discreet about keeping his hands to himself. I can only assume that—"

"Axel and I," Roxas growled, suddenly very defensive, "are not dating."

Riku rewarded him with an incredulous snort. "Sure. That's exactly what it looked like yesterday. And your face just now seemed to say otherwise."

"You're a bastard," Roxas replied. "Tell me _you_ weren't thinking of Sora."

"You're insane." A pause. "Sora might kiss back."

Roxas shrugged. "Would he? With you? I don't know about _that_. Maybe you should ask his _girlfriend_. You know, Kairi? She's right over there. I'm sure she has a lot more experience with kissing him than you ever will."

Riku blinked, hurt, then looked confused. "Wait. Is that why you hate me? Because of Sora?"

"Yes!" Roxas cried in exasperation. "Well, mostly because you're also a total douchebag, but yes. I know better than anyone that you want to take my brother and pound him into the nearest horizontal surface, and under my watch that's never going to—"

He was, predictably, cut off again, but this time Riku was gentle. The older boy closed his eyes, brought up a hand to run through Roxas' hair, and his lips moved softly against Roxas' stone-still, incredulous ones. He was being strikingly inoffensive, and even _nice_, and Roxas wanted to kill him for it. No tongue, thankfully, but the kiss was still lasting way too long, and yet Roxas was too surprised by the tenderness to struggle. He was relieved, however, when Riku pulled away, but he didn't go far enough, and Roxas could still feel Riku's breath on his lips when the other boy spoke.

"_That_," he said, "is how I would kiss Sora." Then he released Roxas and called over his shoulder, "We're done, Kai. We did it. I'm going home," before walking away.

Roxas touched a finger to his lips before forgetting about believing him at all. He decided, instead, to believe that all he'd learned was that Riku was, indeed, capable of molestation, and left it at that.

Anything else would be too weird entirely.

---

Roxas entered the auditorium the next day to the strangest of sights.

Riku, apparently cured of early-onset emo, was already onstage, his hair tied back, sparring with Sora with what appeared to be a giant key. Sora, too, bore a giant key, identical to Riku's in all respects except his was gold and silver while Riku's was entirely black, and was parrying and retaliating with greath enthusiasm. The entire exchange all looked very seamless because they'd both received a minute degree of stage combat training for the play, something of which Roxas was greatly envious as he watched them strike and block back and forth.

"Alright," said Axel, who seemed to often show up behind Roxas without warning. "Tell me that's not symbolic of something. Go ahead, say it."

Roxas elbowed him in the gut, then looked back at the stage just as Sora and Riku crossed keys, forming a pose which might be considered epic if and only if they were characters in a video game. "It's not _sword_fighting. I mean, it's not as if _keys_ are some sort of great phallic symbol."

Axel ruffled his hair. "You're so cute when you're naïve. Don't you know that keys, by nature, are meant to be put _inside_—"

Realizing his mistake the moment before Axel said anything, Roxas said, "Yes, yes, I get it now. Thanks for the clarification."

"Anytime. So, everything went okay yesterday?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by 'okay?'"

"You know." Axel shrugged. "Everyone lived, nothing got bitten, no tongues ended up in places they shouldn't be, mouths or otherwise…"

"Oh, yes," Roxas said dryly. "We had so much fun at rehearsal that I went home with him and had wild sex of all varieties until morning. I didn't get any of my homework done."

"See, I know you're lying," Axel replied, poking his arm. "You always get your homework done."

"Wow. You saw right through me." Roxas sighed. "It went…fine. I mean, I got kind of angry at him, but we kissed without dying. I'm just afraid that Kairi's going to make us do it again, in front of you guys."

"Wait, hold up. Why did you get angry? Did he tongue you?"

"Well, I just…he said some…stuff," Roxas finished lamely, just as Riku let out a cry of victory and Sora yelped, forcing both Axel and Roxas' attentions back to the stage.

"Hey, hey! You two!" Kairi yelled, running toward Sora and Riku at full speed, flinging her backpack into one of the seats on her way down. "No misuse of props!"

Roxas had the feeling, however, that that wasn't what she was upset about. Whatever had occurred during the Sora-Riku fight had left Sora lying on his back on the ground, propped up on his elbows, with Riku on his knees above him, pointing the black key at his neck. Both of them were grinning, and Sora, clearly unaware of the vulnerability of his position, turned his head to look at Kairi and said, "Come on, Kai. We didn't break anything. We just wanted to try out the giant keys."

"What show are they from, anyway?" Riku asked, in an attempt to distract her. He set his key down on the floor so he would look more innocent. "You don't just find giant keys lying around every day."

"Props sent us back to look for extra swords," Sora piped up. "We found these and decided they'd be cooler."

Kairi sighed, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "They're from an old production of _Alice in Wonderland_. Put them back, please. We're going to pick up our run at act two, scene three." She turned around. "Roxas, can I talk to you for a second?"

Roxas nodded, and Riku helped Sora to his feet, not guilty at all about roughhousing with old props. He saw Sora smile at Riku, saw Riku, flushed but happy, punch him lightly on the shoulder before running off to return the keys. Sighing, Roxas shook his head and went down to talk to Kairi. "What is it?"

"I want you to wear the dress today," she said.

He blinked. "What was that? Because I could have sworn that I just heard you say 'I want you to wear the dress today.'"

"Roxas, you're going to have to get used to moving around in a dress if you're going to look at all comfortable in one onstage."

"Everyone seems to think I regularly wear dresses and prance around in them in my spare time," Roxas muttered. "How do you know I wouldn't already be comfortable?"

"Pence is wearing his today," Kairi pressed. "You won't be alone."

"Pence's part is _different_." He paused, then asked, "I'm going to have to kiss Riku today, too, aren't I?"

"Just for the cast."

"We have a big cast, Kai."

Kairi sighed again. She'd been doing it a lot lately. Roxas thought that she looked tired. This director business was hard work, apparently. "Look, Roxas, if you're going to quit, do it now. We're two-and-a-half weeks away from opening. I can train Naminé—"

"Don't be like that, Kairi," Roxas said. "I wouldn't have signed on for this at all if a part of me didn't secretly want to do it, would I?" He sighed, too. "Not the dress thing, and not kissing Riku. I like acting, and Juliet is a sap but I like the part, too. I told you that once I committed, I was going to go through with it, and here I am, going through with it."

Kairi's expression brightened. "Well, that's—"

"But that doesn't mean I'm going to pretend to be happy about the dress. Or about Riku," Roxas continued. "That alright with you?"

"As long as you keep acting," Kairi said, "and you don't spread the negative feelings to the rest of the cast, then yeah, that's fine with me. I can't make you be happy. But I can make you get your ass into the dressing room and into that costume. _Go_."

The instant she said it, she looked shocked. Kairi hardly ever used profanity. _Ever_. Roxas raised an eyebrow, both quizzical and approving. "See? You're getting tougher," he said. "And you've stopped trying to make everybody happy. Oh, and just so you know, I don't think it's going to work out between Riku and me."

"I figured." Kairi drew a long breath and plastered her usual smile back on her face, the fatigue still evident. "Well, go get changed. We're probably going to start the run in a minute."

Roxas nodded, then started down the aisle. A part of him was proud that Kairi was turning into more of a hard-ass. She'd shown potential for it, of course, when Axel was antagonizing her, all the way back in auditions, but now, as she lost sleep and the show gained momentum, that side was appearing more and more often. It was this thought which comforted him when he went into the dressing room and changed into the blue dress the girls had bought for him before Homecoming.

When he emerged, the run of the show had already started. Riku was onstage, talking with Naminé, who, in her red sweater and white peasant skirt, didn't look very friarly at all. She acted the part well, though, and soon Riku was off, comforted by the news that he would soon marry his fair Juliet. Blech.

The next scene, the encounter in the street between Mercutio, Benvolio, Romeo, and, eventually, the Nurse, was one of Roxas' favorites to watch, because it had so much of that banter which Shakespeare did so well. Of course, some of the quips would have admittedly been funnier in Shakespeare's time, but the way Axel's Mercutio verbally sparred with Riku's Romeo would was amusing regardless of what they were saying. Riku, especially, looked happy today, probably because he got to clown around with Sora pre-rehearsal, and as much as Roxas hated to admit it, the emotion he wore was appropriate. Romeo was supposed to be overjoyed at the prospect of marrying Juliet, and, today, Riku shared the emotion. It showed. He and Axel played off of each other today in ways they never had before. Axel, of course, was always brilliant with those jokes, and they left poor Sora eating their proverbial dust with all of the silly puns they bounced back and forth.

Then Pence entered in what appeared to be some sort of floral-print mumu, and the entire scene went straight to hell.

Riku and Axel eventually recovered the use of their lungs, and the show went on. All of the cast and crew waiting in the wings, however, spent a good two or three minutes laughing at the combined effect of the dress, the falsetto, and Hayner trailing behind Pence with a fan.

And even then, it was Axel who made the scene. The way he could steal the scene from Pence wearing a _dress_ was incredible, but his taunts and teases were so true to character and true to _life_ that he was all too fun to watch. When he exited, Roxas almost regretted it. Not that Pence in a dress conversing with Riku wasn't fun to watch too, just that—

"'Saucy merchant' is an appropriate description of Axel, huh?" said Naminé, approaching to peek out at the scene from behind midcurtain. "They're doing so well today."

"Yeah."

Naminé coughed. "You're on in a minute, you know."

"I know."

A pause. Then his sister jabbed him in the ribs. "That means _stop staring_."

Roxas jumped. "I wasn't staring," he rushed, thinking that he might have said it a little too quickly to be believed. "I just got caught up in the scene. They are, um, doing really well."

"Yeah," Naminé agreed. "You better get ready for your entrance, though."

He nodded and went off downstage, mentally cursing himself. When he entered for the next scene, pacing back and forth, wondering when the Nurse would arrive, he only heard a couple of people snicker at the dress, and mentally accredited it to the fact that he didn't have proper heels to wear with it, and was still in his sneakers. He did his best not to worry about it, and paid more attention to getting used to the awkwardly free feeling of the smooth fabric freely flowing around his legs. A dress seemed infinitely more vulnerable than pants. It was also colder, and several times while badgering the Nurse to tell him about what the heck was going on with Romeo already Roxas had to suppress a shiver. He made it through the scene without tripping or fainting from embarrassment, however, and considered that a small victory.

When he ran offstage back into the wings as an adrenaline-bolstered Juliet thrilled to be marrying her Romeo, he thought that that might have actually been one of the best runs of that scene that they'd done so far. Kairi would be pleased. Roxas was pleased. He was so pleased, in fact, that he didn't notice the wayward hand straying in his direction until that hand found the back of his dress somewhere below what Roxas would consider appropriate touching range, and squeezed.

Roxas yelped and, in an instinctive act of self-defense, ground his heel down on Axel's toes. "Dickhead!" he whispered fiercely. "What the hell—"

"You were looking particularly molestable today," Axel said innocently. "That dress is very flattering. Did I do something wrong?"

About to respond, Roxas heard Naminé's voice waft across the stage, and paused. "I have to go on in a second," he growled. "But when I get back, I'm killing you."

"I look forward to dying," Axel replied with a wink. "Get out there."

Roxas' glare broke into a smile, and he trotted out onstage again, assuming Juliet's posture. After he greeted Friar Lawrence he was supposed to have eyes only for Romeo, as per Kairi's instructions. So he kept his eyes glued to Riku's, and Riku, still looking happy and almost as if he wasn't entirely focused on the scene at hand, followed suit. After Riku finished the line about "joy" and "blazon" and "sweetening happiness" and the like, Roxas took his hands. Riku's hands were warm.

It wasn't hard to keep that bubbling hatred at bay, Roxas discovered, if he thought of Axel's stupid grin, and he did as he said his next lines. He wasn't going to think about what that meant until later. For now, it was helping him cope with his scenes.

"…you shall not stay alone 'till holy church incorporate two in one," Naminé finished, at her most friarly, glancing between Riku and Roxas. They were supposed to kiss now, out of relief or something that they were about to be married. Roxas didn't know if they would be able to. After all, what had happened last time was the stage kissing equivalent of hate sex. This was supposed to be tender and sweet and _bearable_, wasn't it?

He hesitated. Riku took the lead, bending down almost awkwardly until Roxas stood up to meet him, ignoring the revulsion welling up in his stomach. He braced himself, and closed his eyes…Riku's arms were around him, and then…

Contact. Fine. Roxas counted to two, and began to pull away, but Riku was still holding him. And then he felt something vaguely moist against his lips which definitely should not have been there.

_Hell no_.

Roxas kicked Riku in the shin, putting a well-deserved excess of force behind it, and the older boy released him, started. For a moment, Roxas saw in Riku's eyes that the older boy hadn't known who he was kissing, but Roxas couldn't bring himself to care.

"_Roxas_!" Kairi exclaimed.

"That kick was in the script, I _swear_!" Roxas shot back. "Kairi, he—"

"I'm sorry," said Riku dully, staring, almost as if he were unable to believe that he had just tongued his best friend's brother.

"Doesn't cut it," Roxas spat.

"Exit the stage," Kairi commanded. "Act three, scene one. _Go_."

Roxas made a disgusted noise, then followed Riku and Naminé off upstage right. As soon as they were out of sight of the house, Roxas grabbed Riku's shoulder and said, "You—"

"Have to be onstage in a minute." Riku pushed him off. "I can't waste time talking to you."

"I'm going to—"

"Do your _worst_," Riku snarled. Then, he disappeared around a corner and was gone, leaving Roxas staring dumbly after him, shaking with rage and righteous indignation.

Axel found him like that after act three, scene one had ended. "And I am slaineth," he said, draping an arm around Roxas' shoulder. "Kairi's called a break. You can kill me now, or make me die, or whatever." Roxas didn't respond. Axel frowned. "Roxas?"

"I don't have time to kill you," Roxas said very slowly. "Is Riku offstage yet?"

Glancing over his shoulder, Axel said, "He should be."

"Good." Roxas started off. "Excuse me. That guy has an appointment with _death_."

"Woah, wait." Axel caught his wrist. Roxas squirmed, trying to get out of it. No one was going to stop him from this. He needed something painful. He needed one of those key-things. Having a key stabbed right through Riku's goddamn heart would hurt him enough so that Roxas would be satisfied. "What'd he do this time? Did you catch him feeling up Sora in the costumes closet or something?"

"Axel, he _tongued_ me."

Axel froze. His grip on Roxas' wrist became leaden. "_No_."

"Yes. And I am going to make him pay for it. With his _life_. Let go."

"No. Just wait." Axel didn't let go. "Listen. I'm not too happy about this either, but, Roxas, don't you think he's hating himself right now more than you could ever hate him?"

"Oh, so you're taking his side?"

"Someone has to." He put a hand on Roxas' shoulder to turn him around and look into his eyes. "Give him another chance, Roxas. He had Sora on the brain. He wasn't thinking about you."

"He should have been. He needs to remember that I'm me and Sora is Sora and that we are not interchangeable." Roxas glared. "Why are you helping him?"

"Because," said Axel, staring back into Roxas' eyes intensely with his clear green ones. From the sheer force of his gaze, Roxas felt the oddest, stupidest urge to blush. He looked away.

"Fine," he muttered. "But if his tongue gets near my mouth _one more time_…"

Axel did something even more unexpected. He hugged Roxas, who wrapped his arms around Axel in an automatic response. "Thanks. I promise, I'll drop something on his head later. But for now, no homicide?"

"No homicide," Roxas agreed reluctantly. "You're crushing my ribs."

"Hmm," said Axel. "A little longer."

"Roxas?" called Kairi from the stage. "I'm not going to find Riku's body in a dumpster, am I?"

"It's alright," Axel called back, releasing Roxas. "I have tamedeth the savage beasteth. Conflict resolved."

"Conflict not resolved," said Kairi, walking back into the wings. "Riku ran off somewhere. We can't find him. If he's not here ten minutes from now, I—agh. What _happened_, Roxas?"

Roxas threw up his hands in self-defense. "I didn't do anything! _He_ was the one who made out with _me_. I just threatened him. I didn't expect him to _leave_."

"Well, he's gone," Kairi said, looking worried. "If he's not back soon, we're going to have to call off the run for today."

"I can be Romeo," Axel suggested. He was ignored.

"Is Sora calling him?" Roxas asked. "He always picks up when Sora calls."

Kairi sighed in exasperation. "He isn't now. I'm just afraid he's going to drive off a cliff or something. Shoot. He's really—he was so embarrassed, Roxas. I don't know what I can say to get that across."

Roxas shrugged. "Whatever. We should just find him."

"I know. If we don't—"

"I can be Romeo," Axel said again, this time a little louder. "I know his lines and all. I'll be your temp until you can find lover boy."

Both Roxas and Kairi stared at him in disbelief. Kairi was the first one to speak. "You know his…_what_?"

"His lines." Axel shrugged, too, but his was nonchalant. "Got 'em memorized. It wasn't hard. I watch his scenes."

"But…you…" Kairi pressed a hand to her forehead. "Fine. You can stand in for Riku. I'll send Selphie after him, and Sora will keep calling. Roxas, you're on in five for three, two."

Roxas nodded, glancing at Axel, who looked smug. Almost victorious.

If Riku's body were found in a dumpster, it definitely wouldn't be Roxas' fault.

---

Twenty minutes later, he and Axel were standing on the balcony, saying their fond farewells. To Roxas' chagrin, he hadn't been allowed to change out of his dress. Axel didn't seem to mind that at all, however. He was taking his stint as Romeo with the utmost seriousness. Well, as serious as Axel could be. His vocal inflection was all wrong—when he spoke, it sounded like he was making fun of Romeo's lines rather than saying them seriously. But his physicality was right, which would be expected. Axel threw himself bodily into Mercutio; why should Romeo be any different?

This scene, act three, scene five, was the "morning after" scene. It was the last time Romeo and Juliet saw each other, well, alive. And while Axel's voice didn't really reflect that sort of tenderness, he was having a great time holding onto Roxas like nobody's business. The blocking for this scene was a bit touchy-feely anyway, as per Kairi's direction, but Axel was wrapped around Roxas from behind so tightly that Roxas wasn't ever sure how he was going to get himself free.

Roxas didn't mind.

"Wilt thou be gone?" he asked, leaning back, pressing his cheek to Axel's shirt, closing his eyes. He was supposed to be lovestruck, sad, sleepy. It was a lot easier to be that way with Axel than with Riku. "It is not yet near day. It was the nightingale, and not the lark, which pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear; nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree: believe me, love, it was the nightingale."

"It was the lark, the herald of the morn, no nightingale." Axel set his chin on top of Roxas' head and pointed. "Look, love, what envious streaks do lace the severing clouds in yonder east…"

They continued on like that, Roxas pleading with Axel not to go, Axel resorting to logic, then sarcasm, to get his point across, and Roxas finally conceding. A part of him felt that this was deeply ironic, although he wasn't sure how. By the time Pence entered in his floral-print mumu, the scene was going extremely well. So well, in fact, that Roxas forgot that Pence would be entering at all, and fairly jumped when he did.

"Your lady mother is coming to your chamber," Pence said in that earnest falsetto. "The day is broke, be wary, look about."

"Then, window, let day in, and let life out," Roxas said regretfully. This had been fun. He was confused, then, as there was no window in sight, and decided it must be metaphorical.

"Farewell, farewell," said Axel with more than the appropriate amount of flourish. "One kiss, and I'll descend."

"You don't have to—" Kairi began from the audience, but it was already too late.

Axel dipped Roxas very, very low, and kissed Roxas full on the mouth. Roxas was too in character to protest. At least, that was what he told himself as he wound his arms around Axel's neck and kissed him back.

"Cut," Kairi called. They didn't listen, because they didn't hear. One of Axel's hands was resting on Roxas' bare back and kept pushing him upwards into the kiss. Not as if Roxas was trying to get away. This was Juliet kissing Romeo, after all. He was so stuck in his character, in fact, that he didn't kick Axel on the shin when Axel's tongue ran over his bottom lip. Hell, he closed his eyes, made a little sound of encouragement, and enjoyed it. In character.

"I said _cut_!" Kairi yelled.

Axel was the one to break away. Roxas wasn't quite sure where he was anymore. When he came to, however, he realized that there were a bunch of people staring at him, and that he'd been making out with Axel in front of all of them.

Huh. How 'bout that.

Standing up and straightening his dress, he wiped his mouth on the back of his wrist. There was wet there. He wasn't sure whose it was. He supposed he should have been grossed out. He was a little grossed out. He was more annoyed, though, at the fact that he wasn't as annoyed as he should have been. And now he wasn't making sense.

"You know that no-tongue rule?" he said to Axel, attempting to reflect the exasperation he _should _have felt in his voice. "Yeah, that applies to you, too."

"Oh, shut up," said Axel grinning. He'd been sweating a little under the stage lights, and he mopped off his forehead with the sleeve of his coat. "You were enjoying it."

"Was not."

"_Guys_," Kairi cut in, sounding as annoyed as Roxas should have felt. "This is not working. We are stopping the show until someone finds Riku. I just sent Sora to go look for him up on that hill by the train station. Roxas, get changed and follow him."

Roxas blinked. "Why…?"

"Because," said Kairi, which meant "I don't want my best friend molesting my boyfriend and only you can stop it." "Do it."

Nodding, Roxas climbed down from the balcony. Axel followed, and just before Roxas disappeared into the dressing room to change, he heard the redhead whisper, "Continue that later?"

"Thanks but no," Roxas replied without even thinking, even though his lips still tingled a little from all of the kissing. "Friends with benefits. Don't want to go there."

"You want benefits? I could throw in some health insurance," Axel pressed. "Dental."

"Axel…"

Axel sighed. Roxas felt a little guilty. He felt more than a little guilty, actually. But there were some things he wasn't ready to admit yet. Not to himself. Not to anyone. "It wouldn't have to _be_ friends with benefits," he said. "I was thinking something a little more dignified, something like—"

"After the play," Roxas cut in softly. "Alright?"

"Alright," Axel said, sounding a little disappointed. "I'm holding you to that, though."

Roxas nodded, not daring to turn around, and opened the dressing room door. Hayner was already in there, his arms crossed, looking confused and angry and waiting to ambush him.

"Dude," he said. "The _hell _was that?"

"I don't even know," Roxas said. "I just want to get changed and get out of here."

And that he did. Five minutes later, he was running towards the train station.

Roxas wasn't sure what he expected to find up on that hill. Probably Riku coercing Sora into some sort of graphic sexual act by making him feel all _guilty_ with those sad eyes and that emo boy hair. Sora would not be pleased. Roxas would not be pleased. And Kairi would be especially not pleased when Roxas tossed Riku off a cliff. She'd have to do a drastically rapid recast. Axel was a terrible Romeo, but he did know all of the lines. It could work.

When he got there, of course, he found no such scene. Sora and Riku were sitting quietly, cross-legged, by the railing, looking down at the train tracks. The sky was beginning to get a little pinkish around the edges, and all in all it was a very pleasant, innocent scene of friendship if one could forget for a moment that Riku was most likely a rapist in the making and Sora was way too innocent to be left alone with him. Roxas kept his distance, however, and hid behind the wall, listening.

"Can't you tell me what's wrong?" Sora was asking. "I want to help you. I don't like seeing you like this."

"I can't," Riku said, so softly that Roxas had to strain to hear him. "I'm sorry."

Sora leaned his head on Riku's shoulder and sighed. "I just want to help," he said. "I just want to help you. I'm your best friend, Riku. Can't I do that?"

Riku was quiet for a long time. The snide part of Roxas' brain half-expected him to say something like "You can help me…_sexually_" and then tackle Sora to the ground. Luckily, the snide part of his brain was usually wrong. Also, Riku wasn't Axel. Axel would do that. Riku thought he was more subtle than that.

When Riku finally did speak, he said, "I kissed Roxas." He paused. "Like, _really_ kissed him. It was why he was so angry at me when we got offstage."

"Oh," said Sora, taking it all in very slowly. "Like…with tongue?"

"Yeah."

"Oh." Sora seemed just a bit weirded out by this, but not enough to remove his head from Riku's shoulder. He thought for a minute or two, then said, "So do you like, like him, then? It's alright if you do. I mean, I could talk to him for you."

Riku shook his head. "I don't like him like that, Sora," he said. "I just got carried away. I didn't mean to kiss him. Not like this." He sighed. "And now I don't know if…if I can do this. I mean, Roxas may kill me, which would put a damper on things, but even if he doesn't…I don't know if I can keep this up."

"But we can't do this without you!" Sora insisted. "Riku, you were the best Romeo who auditioned. You're the best Romeo that _I've_ ever seen, actually. And I know Kairi and everyone would be disappointed if you didn't do it. Even Roxas. He'd never admit that, though." He shifted, just a little. "I can tell him it was all a mistake. He'd listen to me."

"Thanks," said Riku dryly. He didn't believe Sora. Roxas didn't believe Sora either, though, so it was alright.

"_Do_ you like Roxas, though?" Sora asked quietly. "I mean, I just…I could understand why that would make it hard for you."

"I don't like Roxas," Riku replied. "I definitely, definitely do not like Roxas, Sora. You would be the first person I would tell if I did."

"Oh. Then…what _is_ bothering you?"

Riku ran a hand through his hair and sighed his emo, lover-boy Romeo sigh. "It's complicated. It's a lot of things, really. I'll get over it."

"Alright. You sure?"

"Yeah," said Riku softly. "Sure."

Sora, and Roxas, for that matter, sensed that this was not the case. But Sora shouldered on bravely. "Well, just know that you can always talk to me. I'm always here if you need me."

"Thanks," said Riku. "I—God, _Sora_."

The last was almost a sob—but Riku would never actually cry—and Sora heard it too, and leaned forward to wrap his arms around Riku, who squeezed him back. Roxas couldn't miss the way that Riku buried his face in Sora's neck, as if by touching Sora he could absorb all of Sora's purity and innocence and happy-go-lucky attitude and everything about Sora that made him so _good_. As if touching Sora were the only thing that mattered, actually. He clung to Sora so tightly that Roxas thought for sure that Sora would notice.

Sora didn't notice, of course. He released Riku and began to pull out of the hug, smiling a bit as if that had helped, or made part of it better, or something, when he caught Riku's eyes.

And then he noticed _something_, and paused.

Roxas didn't know exactly what Sora saw in Riku's eyes, because he wasn't standing closer and he wasn't Sora. But he imagined that it had to be some flavor of desperation, and sadness, and need and maybe—maybe—a little bit of love. Whatever it was, it had transfixed Sora, and he hovered there, inches from Riku's face, captivated, his lips half-parted. Riku saw this, and it gave him a little bit of hope, and he leaned in, bringing up a hand to brush Sora's face, or hold him in place—

Sora jerked backwards, just by an inch, and he did gasp, then, so loudly that Roxas heard it from his hiding place, and Riku froze, caught like a deer in the headlights. And Roxas saw in Riku's face in that one moment that he was achingly, desperately afraid of losing Sora, and that losing Sora would mean losing everything to him.

And Roxas pitied him.

"I have to go," Sora whispered, not moving. "Riku, I have to go."

"Alright," Riku said, not much louder, equally frozen.

"But…you'll be okay." Sora didn't sound as convinced anymore. "Right?"

Riku nodded. "Yeah."

"Good." And, compelled by some foreign, not-so-teenage instinct, Sora leaned back in and kissed Riku on the cheek. He stayed there for awhile, and when he pulled back Riku looked at him, that same long, desperate look. Sora closed his eyes and reached forward tentatively to run a hand though Riku's hair, which was, as Roxas knew from experience, softer than it looked. Then, without any hesitation at all, he leaned forward once again and, for the briefest of instants, pressed his lips to Riku's before looking down and to the side, as if to say "I can't believe I just did that. I can't _believe_ I just did_ that_."

Riku hugged Sora once again, and turned his head to kiss the place where Sora's neck met his shoulders. Sora buried his face in Riku's shirt out of shame or something else, and Roxas got the sense that he shouldn't be here anymore. "You're alright," Riku was saying softly. "You're alright."

Sora pushed him off. "I have to _go_," he said again, and he stood up and ran back down the path, so quickly that he didn't even see Roxas hiding behind the wall, watching. And then he was out of sight with Riku staring forlornly after him.

Roxas almost thought he recognized the look in Riku's eyes, but before he could really place it, the older boy turned his head back to stare at the tracks far below. After a minute or two, Roxas decided that he'd had enough alone time and approached without a word, sitting down softly next to Riku. Riku didn't look at him.

"So I think I get it now," Roxas said.

"Get what?" He said it like he didn't expect very much.

"You…Sora. You really, I mean…do you love him?"

Instead of responding, Riku was very quiet. Roxas figured that that was pretty much the only answer that he could expect, so he said, "And you always have. I guess…I was wrong."

Riku snorted. "Did you think I was after him for sex?"

"Well, sort of," Roxas admitted. "Yes. I just, I mean, I'm the older brother. By like two minutes, but still. I just wanted to protect him."

"I know," said Riku. "I never could hate _you_."

"Yeah, well." Roxas shrugged. "If it's any consolation, while we're sharing the deepest secrets of our hearts, I…may not be straight."

"May not be?" Riku repeated incredulously. "Are you realizing this now? Have you ever _been _straight?" He ran a hand through his hair. "Seriously, Roxas, the only person you were ever fooling was you."

"I think I know that." Roxas sighed. "So, what do we do?"

"We who?"

"Me and you."

Riku looked at him. "There's nothing wrong with being gay, Roxas. You don't seem to have any problems there."

"I guess…" Roxas shook his head. "The problem with me is admitting it. I mean, I can't even tell _Axel_, and it's something I think he'd like to know. I don't even want to know why I'm telling you. I just think that it would raise too many questions, and I don't want any crises until after the play. So I've been holding off."

"Seems fair," said Riku. "You should tell Axel."

"Probably. I don't know if I _can_."

Riku said nothing, and they sat in silence for a couple of minutes. A train rumbled by below the hill. Roxas watched it disappear into the horizon. The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in bright pinks and golds.

"I wonder if Sora will ever speak to me again," Riku said, at last.

"He will," Roxas insisted. "He's Sora."

"I know." Riku looked at his hands, miserable. "After that…do you think he likes me? I don't know if I can tell anymore."

Roxas thought. "Well, he kissed you."

"He was being nice."

"Sora doesn't just _kiss_ people to be nice." He paused and decided to try to be encouraging. "But, hey. I'll talk to him for you. We'll get things worked out. And I'll tell Kai you were feeling sick and decided to head home."

"Thanks." Riku sounded almost suspicious that Roxas was being so understanding. "So, are we friends or something?"

"As long as you don't stick your tongue in my mouth again," Roxas said, holding out his hand. "Deal?"

Riku shook on it. "Deal. I'm really sorry about that."

"It's no problem," Roxas replied, and he was surprised to find that he wasn't actually angry about it anymore. "I'm going to go back to school now. You'll be alright?"

"No," said Riku. "But I'll live."

Roxas nodded, stood, and headed back, wondering how it all would end.

---

**_A/N:_** So, there was a fair amount of kissing in that chapter. But it was fun. :3 I feel bad for Riku. I once had the exact same conversation with a friend of mine, from his perspective. I was waiting forever for Roxas to come around.

Hmm, and go read my beta's oneshot! It's the first story in my favorites. :]

And now I must go to bed, so I look forward to hearing from you lovely people soon!


End file.
